Endeavour, Mir, perhaps Soyuz, no TRMM
Mark Hanning-Lee (markhl@prodigy.net)
Fri, 30 Jan 1998 19:13:37 -0800
Just had a great sighting from Pasadena CA 34.1 deg N 118 deg W of
Endeavour, Mir, and perhaps Soyuz! Time 1-30 18:31-18:35 PST or so, UT
1-31 02:31-02:35. Light-moderate high cloud, the usual streetlights, and
a thin waxing moon.
Endeavour was right on schedule as predicted by elements a few days old.
It appeared as predicted at about az 200 el 60 and remained a
yellow-white magnitude -2 till it started fading at about el 40 &
promptly disappeared at about az 40 el 30. It passed perhaps 2 deg from
the Pleiades.
Mir caught my eye near az 200 el 20 when it flared to a bright magnitude
-2 to -3. It then faded to magnitude 2.2 (the same as the nearby beta
Ceti) and soon returned to magnitude 0 to -1. A fairly clear white
throughout. It passed very close to the zenith, much as predicted; I
wouldn't like to say whether it was N, E, S, or W of the zenith! It
passed very close (perhaps 10') from Capella and seemed to be slightly
yellower than Capella, as expected if it's reflecting our Sun ;-). It
seemed a bit slower than Endeavour, perhaps because I "knew" it was in a
higher orbit!
I then took away my binoculars just in time to see (perhaps) Soyuz
trailing it by some 8 deg at a steady magnitude 0-1 & same color! They
faded at about the same position as Endeavour.
Great fun.
At 19:06 local time I expected to see TRMM near Saturn but didn't.
Spotting question: has anyone recently seen COBE or TRMM, & if so how
bright were they? Manfred Bester lists them at
http://www.bester.com/satpasses.html which suggests that they should be
quite bright. My usual limiting magnitude is 4-ish, but I have sometimes
looked for them in dark desert skies & haven't seen them yet.
Trivia question: why is this Shuttle called Endeavour and not the US
spelling Endeavor?
Best, Mark
--
Mark Hanning-Lee, markhl@prodigy.net