Hello All, I am new to this list, having seen my first lunar transit by a pure fluke last night! I got a new 4" refractor a few days ago, and I was admiring the Moon at 65X. Then I saw this beautiful silhouette start to cross the disc... it was SO detailed. Taking a lazy 15-20 seconds to cross, I got a wonderful look at it! It was vertically oriented and had a clear separation between top and bottom halves; the top was narrow and the bottom was wider. The sides had visible detail in them -- they were not smoothly straight -- but in awe as I was I did not think to make a mental snapshot and a quick sketch. The crossing ended at 15 Oct 23:35:30 after crossing the Moon (altitude 19-d 37') from left to right and slightly upward oriented to the horizon, which translates to North-South and slightly West. Its velocity did not perceptible waver, and it became invisible after crossing the sunlit portion of the moon. I would estimate it to be 10-15 arc seconds in apparent height. Here is an approximate simulation of what I saw: http://www.pbase.com/image/22363503/original The simulated satellite is intentionally not antialiased, because there was a sharp delineation between top and bottom halves. It is an amazing feeling to have seen something that nobody else on Earth saw! This has to be a virtual guarantee given how sensitive transits are to location. I have not been able to find it using either J-Pass or CalSky. Is it possible I saw a satellite not in their databases? Given how long it took to transit, it would have had to be very far and therefore VERY large... IF it was moving perpendicular to me. Is it possible its path was extremely foreshortened because it was moving toward me? Or is it more likely that it wasn't a satellite? I'm open to speculation. What could it have been? The mystery of the thing is driving me nuts! Regards, David ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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