(meteorobs) Fw: [RASCals] (DDO) Richmond Hill, Ontario

[C.L. Hall]

Fwd from RASC list...
 
 ----- Original Message -----
 From: Eric Briggs <ebriggs at sympatico.ca>
 To: RASCals Discussion List <rascals at lists.rasc.ca>
 Sent: Sunday, June 27, 2004 2:40 AM
 Subject: RE: [RASCals] meteors? (DDO)
 
 
 Observing from the David Dunlap Observatory (79 25 22W, 43 51 44N)

I spotted the re-entering object at about 22:51:30, backtracking on my
watch.  It was at about Alt 25 degrees, Az 225.  Just below the Moon and
Spica.  There were two or three silvery fragments moving in unison, spread
out across 2 degrees or so.  At first I thought they must be the wingtips
of
a plane lit by moonlight.  But no running lights, and if they had been a
plane close enough to be that big I would have heard the engine.  I
processed that it was travelling EW like a satellite and varying in
brightness and disintegrating and that it was probably a re-entering
satellite.  Many people noticed it by the time it passed into Libra.  Some
fragments were yellow.  Brightness of the fragments varied up and down,
but
never got more than mag -1.  I lost it at about Alt 7 degrees, Az 143 at
about 22:52:10.

Cheers
Eric Briggs