[AZ-Observing] 2nd Magnitude Geostationary Satellite
- From: Tom Polakis <tpolakis@xxxxxxx>
- To: AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 15 Oct 2006 3:19:40 -0400
While several of us were observing from Steve and Rosie Dodder's place south of
Maricopa, we observed an interloper 'star' to the northeast of Iota Ceti. It
was distorting the constellation outline, just hanging there at 2nd magnitude
or a bit brighter.
After a few minutes, I put my scope on it, and it became clear that it was a
geostationary satellite, occupying the -5.5 degree declination band. Over the
next ten or fifteen minutes, it slowly faded from naked-eye visibility, but
stayed pretty bright in the scope. We first noticed the satellite at its
brightest at 10:00 p.m. Running the time in desktop planetarium software, the
azimuth works out to be about 150 degrees, or 30 degrees to the east of the
meridian.
What causes an object that is 22,000 miles away to flare to 2nd magnitude? Has
anybody seen a similarly bright rise in brightness of a geostationary
satellite? Who is the local expert on this subject who would be able to help
us identify the satellite?
Tom
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