This evening, in unexpectedly clear skies, we saw a spectacular pass of the Cosmos 2372 rocket (00-056B = 26539). At 23:11.5 UTC (09 October 2000), as it zipped through the not-yet dark skies through Cassiopeia, it was flashing at approximately four cycles per second reaching a peak brightness of about -1 magnitude (i.e. considerably brighter than Vega's +0.03 and Arcturus' -0.05). Even the most casual of observers would have noticed it - probably mistaking it for an aircraft. Later, at 23:34 UTC, we saw Cosmos 2372 itself (00-056A = 26538) move quickly through Hercules to below Aquila, at a steady magnitude of about +1/2 (between Vega's +0.03 and Altair's +0.76). A very nice pair; too bad the rocket is on the verge of decay. Clear and dark skies! Ed and Darlene Light Lakewood, New Jersey, USA 40.1075N, 074.2312W, +24m (80 feet) ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 09 2000 - 17:31:13 PDT