Clear Sky! Observed IGS 1A and IGS 1B

Wednesday, August 17, 2005, 02:04:20 LT

After a long period of clouds and rain, it was
clear this evening, although slightly hazy. A
gibbous moon was shining low in the south, the
sky background remained quite bright.

I targetted the two Japanese IGS spy satellites,
the optical satellite IGS 1A (2003-009A, #27698)
and the radar satellite IGS 1B (2003-009B,
#27699). The main purpose of both is to keep an
eye on North Korea. IGS 1B is a very nice, bright
naked eye object.

IGS 1B made a nice pass, I observed the satellite
visually as well while it was skimming Pegasus. It
was 0.6 seconds early relative to elset 05227.95069540.

The trail of the fainter IGS 1A is les well resolved
on the image due to the bright background. It was
~ 0.3 seconds early relative to elset 05277.91063071.