Howdy Seesaters from a casual observer, With the approaching New Moon and a recent drop in humidity, the West Virginia mountain skies are about as good as they can get this time of year. We're talking +5, even +6 for 1x viewing by the middle of the night. It was so clear this evening that a good 45 minutes before the end of astronomical twilight, I was able to see the Cosmos 1441 Rocket, with a H-A predicted magnitude of +3.7. A bit later, I was unloading groceries from the car bathed in hundreds of watts of floods out in the yard, marveling at all the detail I could still see in the Milky Way, despite all the artificial lumens, and I saw a rather unusual sight. As I looked almost due west, I saw something do multiple flares. I've seen plenty of operational Iridiums flare, and these flares were similar, but there were at least three, maybe four, in the space of about 20 degrees of a pass, and I've never seen anything do that. The first flare looked to be close to -2 in magnitude, though I was standing under very bright floodlights. It appeared at about 50 to 60 degrees azimuth almost due west very close to 21:23 EDT (date = 9/5). As the satellite moved in an almost due north direction, each successive flare was dimmer, and the object was invisible between flares. I wonder if this was this a non-operational Iridium? Are so many multiple flares (not flashes) common for any other objects? I'm at lat=38.067, long=-80.434, 2950' Elevation, in wild, wonderful West Virginia. I apologize for the rough nature of these details, but like I said, I'm a casual observer, even though I started watching in the late 1960's. I'm constantly impressed by the level of expertise exhibited by most of the regular posters to this list. You guys are way out of my league. I'll bet someone out there on this list can tell me what I saw. I look forward to reading all your posts regarding this sighting. Best Regards, Art Glick Almost Heaven Group HC 67 Box 539 BB Renick WV 24966 Phone 304-497-2610 Fax 304-497-2698 e-mail art@almostheaven.net http://www.almostheaven.net/ ---------------------------------------------- Offering direct sales of Saunas, Steamrooms and the widest selection of Pool, Spa, Sauna and Hot Tub Equipment worldwide. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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