FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: 2nd Magnitude Geostationary Satellite

[Tom Polakis <tpolakis@xxxxxxx>]

I went through the archives of the SeeSat-L mailing list to find the answer.  
http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Sep-2006/0029.html

For a period of a month or so near the Equinox, the geostationary satellites 
are placed near opposition from the sun at a particular time of night.  The 
site notes that flaring geosats will rival some of the brightest stars in the 
sky.  Not long after the flare, the geosats move into the Earth's shadow and 
disappear completely, only to flare again when they come out of the eclipse.  
We did not see our geosat disappear last night.

Using his flare calculator and instructions, it misses the position of last 
night's flare near Iota Ceti by a few degrees, but it's close enough to show 
what is going on.

Tom
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