> >Is it brightness or short duration thats the reason for not seeing the > >flashes naked eye? > > Probably rather brightness, since the specular surfaces are comparably > small and thus produce less obvious flashes. A lucky flash from a tumbling > Iridium probably lasts for a similar duration, but appears a lot brighter I believe more in duration, because the same phenomenon is often mentioned on flashing geosynchs, and I have never seen Superbird-A at 1-power, though its flashes can be perceived as +4 or even +2 - +3 in binoculars (nor any other flashing geosynch). /Björn ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Feb 11 2003 - 09:21:25 EST