Spot 1 r BJ Again

Mir16609 (Mir16609@aol.com)
Wed, 25 Mar 1998 23:18:04 EST

Has it been 16 days already?

Last March 9th I unexpectedly observed SPOT 1 r BJ (17206, 86019BJ).
(Thank goodness for hypertext archieves)
http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/Mar-1998/0122.html

This evening at 19:14 EST (00:14 UT), while expecting Landsat 4 to enter my
field of view at beta-Leo, SPOT 1 r BJ passed, moving in the opposite
direction ( Left to right).   It was flashing at about a 3 second period (in
good agreement with the most recent 2.58 second period observation by the
BWGS).  The brightness appeared vary between a 4.0 mag and a 5.5 mag.

Cosmos 673 Rk made a nice 82 deg maxima pass at 19:22 EST (00:22UT).  It was
near the predicted 1.6 mag brightness.  

The Titan IV Rk 21148 was right on time again.  It was steady at about a 2.0
mag through the entire pass (65 deg maxima) and still visibe at 1x going to
the right of the Big Dipper at 19:13 EST (00:13 UT).

One final note on sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe:
Dejanews has finally picked up the group.  Their main page is:
http://wmod.dejanews.com/

Cheers.
Don Gardner
Homepage: http://members.aol.com/mir16609/
76.8419 W, 39.1796 N,  34m ASL