(meteorobs) RE: Explosion Observed

[Tony Beresford]

At 22:17 16/05/06, you wrote:
>Hi.Tony and All
>How about some small slow moving tumblimg spacejunk
>that flashes every few minutes.I observed some junk
>last year I could not see in my small telescope but
>when it flashed.I also observed naked eye another
>piece of junk in 2004 that at first I thought was a
>head on meteor.This slow moving space junk I was able
>to follow it for about 15 minutes flashing every 3 to
>5 minutes but could only see it when it flashed.
>Tony, I have heard of people reporting bright flashes
>believed to be cause by a strong cosmic ray event in
>the human eye.I have seen what I believe myself were
>cosmic ray event while observing but the flash where
>not equal to a bright meteor but were dim.Just some
>thoughts on the matter.
>Regards

There are indeed a lot of satellites giving short flashes 
and otherwise around mag 12-14. In particular the many
abandoned or failed comsats just inside or outside the GEO,.
I observed and timed quite a few of them 1997-2003.
Some are naked eye flashes. But they are all pinpoints,
never an appreciable size. 
They give flashes for time intervals varying from 10 minutes
to several hours depending on the orientation of the spin axis.

Tony Beresford