On Fri, 06 Sep 2002 00:27:19 -0400, you (Patrice Scattolin <scattol@videotron.ca>) wrote: >I have never noticed this but some other claim to see this. Is the ISS >getting brighter or dimmer during it's pass. I am not talking about when it >enters shadow and disapear quickly but some say that the ISS will be >brighter when opposite to the Sun and attribute this to reflection from >solar panels. There often is a notable change in color, namely when the sun is shining through the panels and we're seeing their backside, which produces a bit of an orange tint that disappears the higher the ISS rises in the sky. Also there ought to be a change in brightness as soon as the ISS has passed you far enough that you see the sunlit side of the solar panels and their phase angle gets more and more favorable so that they appear brighter. I don't think you ought to be seeing an outright flare from the panels. Of course this depends greatly on the nature of the pass, and also note that IME this change in brightness is much more apparent when you're observing a docked Shuttle/ISS combo, in which case the Shuttle can rather suddenly "flip" its appearance from the black and unlit belly to the white and brightly lit top side. IMO that kind of change in brightness is more apparent than with the ISS alone. CU! Markus ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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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