Everyone knows about Superbird A, which is easy because it's brightest maxima are quite bright and because Rob Matson has been providing flash episode predictions! In a different way but really not very hard at all (at least currently, for Austin, Texas!) is Gorizont 16 (19397, 88-071A). In the last several clear nights I've been able to observe it easily with handheld 10x50 binoculars. The hardest part is watching one spot carefully for up to 95 seconds to see the first flash. The brightest flashes are at least +5 if not +4.5; just a while ago I was able to see some from the parking lot just outside my apartment -- not a good observing site at all. And that was just over two hours after first spotting it earlier in the night! It's drifting quite slowly night to night from east to west and so will be over the USA for a few more weeks. The only real unknown is when and where it might flash for any other location; 10 to 15 degrees away from here, does it flash earlier, later, or not at all? Since it's visible here for such an extended period each night (so far), I tend to think that it might be visible over a wide area. Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed May 23 2001 - 01:15:17 PDT