Tuesday 13 September 2005

USA 129, but no aurora

Monday, September 12, 2005, 23:59:46 LT

An aurora warning was out, as the geomagnetic
activity was very high due to a series of X-class
flares on the sun today and yesterday.

Aurora was not seen, but Keyhole satellite USA 129
(96-072A, #24680) was captured by the camera at
20:43:10 UTC. A clear unambiguous trail is visible
on the image, yielding two points. I am very curious
as to how the delta T values will compare to those
of other stations this time. It will be running "early"
anyway because of the high geomagnetic activity (which
increases the drag, as the atmosphere expands due to
it).

An exposure was made one minute earlier too, but the
satellite is not visible on that image.

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