This morning, Iridium P05 74 reflected an unexpectedly bright glint well BEFORE her predicted glint. She glinted to mag -3?, about 29 seconds before glinting, as predicted, to mag 2?. Then, completing a triple glint, she brightened again to mag 3?, after a further interval of about 18 seconds. This pattern persisted with the next 2 objects, though greatly reduced. Ir P06, predicted at mag 4, rose to about a half magnitude brighter, and, more peculiarly, persisted at or near that bright magnitude for a very long time. She was above mag 5? for almost 100 seconds, the large majority of that above mag 4?. Ir P07R was not predicted by IRIDFLAR, but nevertheless rose above mag 5?. As I have previously suggested (e.g., in http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/Mar-1998/0081.html, where you will find suggestions of worthy objects), the common practice of looking for satellites at culmination can deprive the observer of a great deal of "action". This applies with additional force to the Iridia and predictions of their bright glints. It is interesting to observe a parade of objects all glinting in the same area of the sky, at intervals of about 9 minutes 7 seconds. Cheers. Walter Nissen wnissen@tfn.net -81.8637, 41.3735, 256m elevation --- The media routinely report the many events and situations which support the titular conclusion of "More Guns, Less Crime, understanding crime and gun-control laws" (University of Chicago Press, 2000) of John R. Lott, Jr., of Yale University; e.g., crime sprees which end, not upon the removal of weapons, but on the arrival of more weapons; minimal rates of mugging in police stations; the plight of Rep. McCarthy's husband and son trapped in a LI RR car where (by law) the only weapon was possessed by the criminal; the continuous protection provided to the President by fully-automatic (assault) weapons deployed within arms length. Yet the same media editorialize against weapons, fantasizing about a very different world. Whatzuphere? --- Ir P05 glinted at 093708.20 093737.24 093755.29 Ir P06 was above mag 5? from 094609.70 to 094743.74. --- Thanks to Rob Matson for the high accuracy of his IRIDFLAR. Ir Date Time Al Az Mag 74 0-10- 2 9:37:00 59 219 5.2 74 0-10- 2 9:37:40 46 204 1.7 74 0-10- 2 9:38:40 31 195 5.9 72 0-10- 2 9:46:20 48 230 5.4 72 0-10- 2 9:47:00 38 216 4.0 72 0-10- 2 9:48:00 27 205 6.0 --- Ir P06 72 1 25343U 98032B 00275.96101990 +.00000159 +00000-0 +49811-4 0 02869 2 25343 086.3941 253.8124 0002504 082.2699 277.8771 14.34219543124464 Ir P05 74 1 25345U 98032D 00276.02444910 .00000037 00000-0 63134-5 0 2861 2 25345 86.3948 253.7993 0002441 80.4839 279.6629 14.34218168124477 Ir P07R 75 1 25346U 98032E 00275.96736470 -.00000104 +00000-0 -44126-4 0 02977 2 25346 086.3956 253.8372 0002350 079.4131 280.7326 14.34217104125030 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 16:50:11 PDT