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(meteorobs) Strange Lights....
Hi All
Thanks to those who replied directly to my post regarding the transient
'star' and flasher:
First let me correct a typo in the first message. The declination for the
first sighting should have read +6.5 deg, not -6.5 deg. (Sorry!)
Wayne wrote:
>Probably you saw satellites..dot can you give me your Lat and Long, and your
>time difference from UT?
>I can look up the bright one you saw. The flasher will be a bit more
>difficult, but it also was a satellite I am sure...
Wayne, from my plots of the positions of the two objects and the rate and
direction of drift, I was wondering if this may be ONE object. My latitude
is 26d05'24.7"S, longitude 28d18'58.0"E. (to answer Jean-Christophe also).
I plotted positions as follows -
'star' at 19h31 UT , RA12h15, Dec +6.5 deg
flasher at 20h34 UT, RA13h40, Dec -2.0 deg
flasher at 21h31 UT, RA14h06, Dec -5.5 deg
flasher at 22h33 UT, RA14h42, Dec -6.5 deg.
South African Standard Time is UT +2 hours (midnight UT is 2 am local time).
David McCarter wrote:
>This sounds like an Iridium satellite flare. See the May issue of
>Sky&Telescope
and
>You might have
>noticed that the object was slowly drifting opposite the drift of the
>stars. Turn off your clock drive, and the light will sit still.
David
Presumably you mean May 1998 S&T, which hasn't arrived here yet (this is
darkest Africa). I have heard about these Iridium thingies. Do they flash,
or is the light continuous such as for 5 minutes as I observed. With the
telescope stationary, the object did not sit still but drifted (see also
above positions which indicate a south east drift of some 15 deg during a 2
hour period). I guess that rules it out as a geosync. Regret last night
was cloudy again, and tonight doesn't look promising.
Bye for now
Tim