Last night from about 1:49 to 2:27 (Sept 30) UTC, using my handheld 10x50 binoculars, I observed three geosynchs in a small "parade" on the same track. I would first see them more or less between 3 Aquarii and the nearby pair 4 and 5 AQR (which all three together make an easily identifiable small triangle). This is at about RA 20:48, Dec -5 (2000). Over a period of several minutes each in turn would be overtaken by another pair of stars to the east, 11 and 12 AQR, at about 21:02, -5. The first two were visible at the same time. The first was brightest of the three, as bright as 3 AQR, which I think, though it is apparently a variable star, is brighter than +5. Since watching them continually is something like watching the minute hand of an analog watch, what I would do is get a fix, look at an LEO or two, and then look back to see the new position. (You should see my scribbly little diagrams!) I haven't tried to ID these satellites yet. At the moment I'm more interested in understanding why I'm seeing them (aside from the obvious fact that the nights this week have been superb!). I assume it's the flaring geosynch phenomenon and appreciate very much Kevin's Fetter's list reply the other day. I haven't tried to use the "about to enter eclipse" version of Highfly yet. If a quick and easy answer is possible, what I'd most like to know before this evening is in the most general sense where to look to see more of them. Does the "flaring geosynch" area move during the night? If so, does it move westward with the Sun (i.e., so that the Sun-object-observer angle stays constant -- if I'm thinking correctly)? I was trying to figure this out in my head last night in order to try to see more of them, but I'm just not (yet?) qualified for that kind of figuring. Later in the evening I'm pretty sure that I found Galaxy XI (26038, 99-071A), but it was about +8. I didn't write down the exact time (very roughly 4:25, plus-or-minus a few), but for a few minutes I watched as it crossed the 23:00 RA line, at -5 Dec. This is quite a bit later than the previous nights, and I wonder if it's just always fairly bright for a geosynch, considering how large it is. I've been trying to see Solaridad 1 (22911, 93-073A), whose failure Don Gardner wrote about in August, but so far without success. Non-satellite obs. -- Later in the evening while looking for Gorizont 13, I saw a +7.0 star not on the +7.5 charts (1950) that I have. It was near iota Capricorni. There's an online site with charts with stars to +10 (and deep-sky objects to +12.9!), but I don't see it there either, so maybe it was an asteroid, at about 21:19, -16.5 (2000). I never dreamed, using handheld 10x50 binoculars, I'd need star charts to such faint magnitudes!! That online chart site is: http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/ Observing location: 30.314N, 97.866W, 280m. Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Sat Sep 30 2000 - 12:52:18 PDT