Daytime flare of Iridium 15 (24869) observed
Bram Dorreman (a183231@nlevdpsb.snads.philips.nl)
Sun, 12 Oct 1997 09:20:25 GMT
At 1997-10-12 08:08:07 UT I succeeded in my first attempt
to observe object 24869 1997-034 A Iridium 15 during
DAYTIME.
Randy John's program Skysat 0.4 was used to predict such a
potential daylight-satellite. The program computed for our
location the following data:
Time: 08:08:07 UT
Azimuth: 144 degrees (N = 0 degrees)
altitude: 79 degrees
distance: 803 km
Mirror 2: 0.11 degrees
The last value made me to try this transit at the predicted
location at the sky. We (my son Chris and I) were sitting
in armchairs using one-power. I counted down the seconds
(unfortunately too low, Chris could not hear me). At the
"moment supreme" I saw really a light dot about the expected
location, it lasted for only 1 second. Chris was just looking
at the clock and missed this special event. I feel sorry for
him.
It is difficult to give a brightness estimate. It was anyway
much brighter than Venus during daylight. We experienced
observing Venus during daytime many times (one-power).
Once more a prove that Randy's program is GREAT.
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-- Bram Dorreman, COSPAR station 4160, Achel 1
-- latitude 51d 15' 49" north longitude 5d 28' 38" east
-- +51.26361 degrees -5.47722 degrees
-- height: 35 meter above sealevel.
-- member of SeeSat-L
-- Internet: A183231@nlevdpsb.snads.philips.nl
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-- Kind regards, Bram Dorreman
-- Origin IT Systems Management
-- tel: +31 40 2788372
-- fax: +31 40 2786810