very slow very bright flasher
Joseph A. Dellinger (jdellinger@amoco.com)
Tue, 12 Oct 1999 11:30:43 -0500 (CDT)
While waiting for Superbird to appear last night, another spectacular
flasher appeared a few minutes before. This one was very bright, with flashes
in the range of mag 0 to 1. It was not geosynchronous but moved VERY slowly,
maybe only 5 degrees over the several minutes it was flashing. The
brightest flashes appeared to have been occurring at about 10:26-10:28PM,
CDT (on Oct 11). It was in the area of around 23h 30m RA and -2deg Dec
(about 6 or 7 degrees North and a little East of where Superbird appeared
moments later), and moved slowly left (East). Flashes occurred about every
9 seconds.
Observations were made from George Observatory SouthWest of Houston,
at 29.37N and 95.59W.
Any idea what this was? If predictable, this would be a great one
to show to the general public, especially if it will put on a similar show
on the "astronomy day" next weekend. It was so bright that there was no
difficulty at all getting people to see it. (On Saturday night I tried to
show Superbird A to a bunch of people and only maybe half of them were able
to see it naked eye.)
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