> Last night, while casually sweeping the sky with my 10x50 binoculars,
> I noticed a satellite pass between alpha and gamma CrB moving slowly
> to the left (slightly below directly left), at about +5.5 magnitude.
> Later, when I tried IDing it using the latest alldat.tle, the only
> object at all close in time or position was Midas 5 = NCAT 00271 =
> COSPAR 62-010A (or, for us old timers, 1962 kappa 1). Unfortunately,
> what I saw was 3-4 magnitudes brighter than what one would predict
> using 00271's standard magnitude of 5.9 or quicksat's intrinsic
> magnitude of 4.5. In the short time I was looking at this, no
> variation was obvious.
>
> Has anyone seen this object flare or otherwise brighten?
> Ed Light
In 1991, I saw this steady at mag 7.3, then 2 days later it varied in a
minute and a half from 6½ to fainter than 9.
Not sure which, but another time I saw a Midas at 0 mag!
--
Jay Respler
--
JRespler@superlink.net
SKY VIEWS: http://mars.superlink.net/jrespler/skyviews.html
Satellite Tracker * Early Typewriter Collector
Freehold, New Jersey
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