Cosmos 1043 -- Great pass!

Ed Cannon (ecannon@mail.utexas.edu)
Wed, 17 Sep 1997 22:25:07 -0400

Cosmos 1043 (78-094A, #11055) made a great pass over here 
tonight!  Even though it was only around 50% illuminated for 
the entire pass, it was very bright throughout, reaching a 
maximum magnitude that I estimate as being possibly +1.  Also, 
it was still at least mag. +2.5 when it went within perhaps 
0.25 deg. of Polaris at about 1:33:05 UT Thursday.  The pass
culminated at altitude 79, azimuth 280.  

I was able to see in twilight a pass of GPS 2-19 Rk (93-017C, 
#22583) that must have reached at least mag. +1.5.

And, in spite of the mediocre-to-poor location on the Univ. of
Texas at Austin campus (30.29N, 97.74W, 160m), I also observed
Lacrosse 2 (91-017A, #21147), UHF 2 Rk (93-056B, #22788 -- 
flashes to +2 at least), Meteor 1-28 Rk (77-057B, #10114), and 
HST (90-037B, #20580).

Those were all one-power observations.  I also tried to "get 
Iridiated" (i.e., observe Iridium flashes), but they all 
(Irids. 12, 13, and 14) were too northerly and/or too low 
tonight.  At least, I didn't see any flashes at all in the NE.

Ed Cannon
ecannon@mail.utexas.edu
Austin, Texas, USA