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Re: (meteorobs) July 8, 2003 Meteor Observations from California
At 12:16 9/07/03, Bob Lunsford wrote in part.
> The highlight of the
>session was non-meteoric. It was the sudden appearance of an old friend, the
>NOSS satellite triad. For those not familiar with it, NOSS stands for Naval
>Orbiting Surveillance System. It is a group of three satellites that travel
>together in a triangle-shaped formation. They appeared at 3:51 PDT in the
>constellation of Pegasus during the playing of Strauss's Blue Danube. It was
>pretty cool scene as it looked as if a part of an entire constellation was
>being relocated in the sky. They were as bright as second magnitude before
>fading as they traveled northward.
In case Bob's comments are confusing, there are 3 NOSS 2 triplets.
Bob saw what is known among amatuer satellite observers as NOSS 2-1,
the oldest triplet of the NOSS 2 series. The NOSS 2-2 triplet
was also visible that morning from his observing site, at 04:03 PDT
at maximum elevation of 34 degrees in the North East, going South.
They are usually binocular objects, which occasionally are naked eye.
Predictions for these triplets are available from www.heavens-above.com
but you have to select them, as quite properly, HA ignores there occasional
brightenings so the dont get included in the standard daily predictions.
Incidentally Bob it must have been 02:51 PDT -)(
Tony Beres
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