As predicted by Calsky I observed a bright flare from Cosmo-Skymed 2. Prediction was for a mag 1 flare at 06:04:15 UTC from the SAR panel, I made it at 06:04:18 but as was using a watch which is not highly precise the prediction is near enough. Predicted el was 78.2 in Hydra, for the reasons stated below positional obs were not practicable, it was hard enough to see anything else! There had been an Iridium flare predicted before this but it was not observed owing to clouds and also the fact I was concentrating on getting ready for the Cosmo flare. Predicted mag of Cosmo-Skymed 2 was mag 1, I believe it was brighter than that, at least -1. There was a slight fluctuation in magnitude. Duration was quite long although I did not time it, probably at least 10 seconds. Conditions were extremely difficult with fast moving clouds ahead of an approaching front which has brought snow to the South Island. Therefore the flare might have been longer but in the conditions it was impossible to tell. Calsky predicted a second flare at mag 4 one minute later, this time from the "Unknown Mirror" but conditions were unsuitable to attempt observation of this one as visibility was not good enough to observe a flare of that magnitude. This is not my first observation of flares from this object, I reported some time ago to Arnold on a previous flare in excellent conditions from the Wellington waterfront where the flare had a duration of 45 seconds. I observed another similar flare a few days later though it was not as bright or as long. So if you have an opportunity to observe these flares I highly recommend it. In my opinion these are more interesting viewing than Iridium flares, even though they have not been as bright at the best Iridiums, (Iridia? :-) In our case the next opportunity is in the early morning Tuesday our time (Monday evening UTC) so weather permitting (and it looks as if there is a reasonable chance) I will certainly be attempting another obs. Here's hoping I will be able to get a position from some stars then! Robert Holdsworth Wainuiomata New Zealand 174.948E 41.261S ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jun 07 2008 - 06:49:47 UTC