Wow Brian, we must of saw a simular satellite! We counted at least
three polar satellites pass through the field of view during the night.
Got very confusing at one point for me when I had a solid lock on XP14
and zip goes a satellite throwing my eye off and loosing the asteroid.

I'm starting to see reports from our other club members who tracked
XP14 with larger equipment and from fixed sites. They were able to
track the asteroid for extended periods.

Tom


Brian Tung wrote:
tmnathe wrote:
It was very faint and an irratic tumbler by my estimate. Only visable
for about a second every 5 - 10 minutes or so (not an accurate time by
any means). At its brightest, maybe mag 11, but invisable the rest of
the time. My hunch is that there is a flat spot that was acting as a
reflector.

Interesting--that was my experience. I had just two moments when I
thought I might have seen it, and it seemed to flash into visibility for
a brief moment, and when I tried to confirm, I couldn't see it. But of
course that doesn't prove that I saw it; for all I know, it could have
been a random piece of junk in my eye.

I did see a north-to-south satellite cross the field while I was hunting
for XP14.

--
Brian Tung
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