Sunday 10 December 2006

Lacrosse 5 & its "disappearance trick" again

I observed Lacrosse 5 (05-016A, 28646) this morning, and timed it's "disappearing trick" again.

I saw it emerge out of earth shadow above alpha Auriga at a bright mag. +1 at about 5:19:00 UTC. It then crossed towards Umi, over Polaris, bright and steady. At 5:21:24 ± 1s UTC at 45 deg altitude in the N-NE it did its trick again, fading from mag. +1.5 to naked eye invisibility in just a few seconds.

05-016A was nicely on-time and on-track. I obtained 3 images, hence 6 positions.

I was up in the middle of the night too, to watch the Shuttle launch on NASA-TV at 2:47 am local time.

(click image to enlarge)

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