Almost Daytime Iridium Obs
Ron Lee (ronlee@pcisys.net)
Thu, 16 Oct 1997 07:03:30
Decided to try an Iridium flare just before sunrise (7:09 am Local).
Was out in plenty of time. Could still make out Sirius. Seconds
before the Matson predicted flare I saw it. Max magnitude was
perhaps -3 to -4. Much brighter than Sirius and easy to find.
Flare maximum within 1 second or so of predicted max but the
brightness was much higher than predicted (variability in MMA
pointing).
Iridium number was 14. Flare at 6:56:39 AM local on 16 Oct 97.
Formal report will be in the updated flare listing at end of month.
Ron Lee