Hello Denis, NOAA's can be as bright as you described, even magnitude -4 .I suspect that when the satellite's azimuth is the same as that of the sun, such a flaring occurs. I did not yet prove my suspection. This applies to NOAA's that are still operational and their attitude is controlled. There are more (active) payloads showing such a behaviour, such as TOPEX ( 22076 92-52A ) and Terra (25994 99-68A). Happy observing Bram Dorreman COSPAR 4160 51 16' 45.5" N 5 28' 36.6" E (WGS84) 35 m ----- Original Message ----- From: "Denis Denissenko" <denis@hea.iki.rssi.ru> To: "SeeSat Mailing List" <SeeSat-L@satobs.org> Sent: Friday, September 10, 2004 21:13 Subject: NOAA 17 bright? > Just looked out of the window at our institute to check if there is any > activity from alpha-Triangulid meteor shower and saw bright (about 0 > mag) satellite moving towards Polaris instead. While watching it fade, > caught stroboscopic flares moving through Cassiopaea in almost opposite > direction. Local time was 22:50 (UT+04:00). > > Identified them as 27453 NOAA 17 (02-32A) and well known tumbler 24842 > Iridium 911. What surprised me was the brightness of the first > satellite. SkyMap predicted it to be 4.3m, while it was definitely > brighter than 1.0 when I caught it appearing from the roof above me. > > So was my identification correct - that is, can NOAA 17 be that bright, > or was it another recently launched sat? > > My window is facing azimuth 35 (NNE) almost towards Moscow center, > limiting magnitude is about 3.8. > > Denis (approx. 37.6 East, 55.7 North) > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: > http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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