3 Iridiums Sunday morning 16 Nov 1997

Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Mon, 17 Nov 1997 03:02:22 -0600

Sunday morning, 16 Nov 1997, I observed 3 one-power Iridium flares 
in less than four minutes; two were from the most recent launch.  
(Until about 36 hours beforehand, we had predictions for *six* in
an even smaller time span -- but it was not to be.  Three of the 
them were moved a lot and ended up going 3 or 4 degrees farther 
west.)  I didn't drive far enough for any of these to reach 
"whopper" magnitude, and I didn't get a good fix on maximum 
magnitudes; maybe about -1, 0, +1 (or one magnitude fainter?).  
I'm not sure what report format is being used now, if any.  Time 
is UTC.  Duration is for one-power observability (with the Moon 
nearly full).

11:46:38, Iridium 38, at least 30 seconds (missed the beginning)
11:48:03, Iridium 40, at least 38 seconds
11:50:12, Iridium 17, at least 32 seconds

Observed from Mt. Bonnell, Austin, Texas -- 30.321, -97.773, 275m.

By the way, I believe these are the correct designations for the 
newest ones (including a "Year 2000" version of COSPAR):

NORAD COSPAR Common Nam COSPAR2K
----- ------ ---------- --------
25039 97069A Iridium 43 1997069A
25040 97069B Iridium 41 1997069B
25041 97069C Iridium 40 1997069C
25042 97069D Iridium 39 1997069D
25043 97069E Iridium 38 1997069E

Ed Cannon
ecannon@mail.utexas.edu
Austin, Texas, USA