Last night I was prepping to observe the Falcon 9 payloads using an 8" telescope. While looking around, casually watching the Falcon 9 rocket, I glance over towards Cassiopeia and saw another bright object moving northward. It seemed to have a glow around it. Most likely that was astigmatism so I go inside to get binoculars. When I came out to observe it with binoculars it was just a bright satellite. I still cannot use the all satellite search function with Skymap so I have no way to ID it. At 02:29 UT, 8 Oct 2013 it was about ten degrees to the left (west) of the triangle of stars in Perseus. That would place the satellite in the area of 3 Hr 30 min RA and declination +63 degrees. Inclination was 60-70 degrees plus or minus. Location: Lat= 38.947800 N Long= 104.561400 W Alt= 2073 meters. What I find interesting is the recent number of random observations of flaring satellites. It also appears that from my location and this time of year and night that the area near Cassiopeia may be good for observing flares. I just checked Heavens Above and the region for Iridium flares looks to be further west in the coming days. _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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