Timing errors and a mag. -5 IGS 1B flare

After the unexpected METOP-A flare of yesterday evening, I was surprised by another unexpected flare. And what a flare: it concerned the failed Japanese radar satellite IGS 1B (03-009B) flaring at about 21:06:20 UTC to magnitude -5!

It happened after I had taken a photograph of IGS 1B and was in the process of moving my tripod to another corner of the courtyard. I suddenly saw it flaring so brilliantly with a distinct yellowish colour and my jaw dropped. I didn't get the chance to aim and get a shot of it.

I have never seen IGS 1B do this before. Together with the somewhat irregular brightness behaviour in past evening sightings, I think it underlines that it is tumbling out of control.

On a less positive note, I seem to have developed a time lag in my positions lately. They seem to be about 0.35 seconds too late in general. All positions produced from now on will incorporate a 0.35s correction therefore and we'll see whether things get in line again.

The most likely source of the timing error is in the camera (another much less likely option is in the DCF77 signal). Indeed I recently did access my camera with other software than usual, which seems to have done something to my settings.

The timing accuracy keeps being a head-ache and the bottle-neck of the technique I employ, together with the effects of random noise (and the noise suppression routine) in the image.

Yet for now my current equipment is all I can afford, so I'll just have to do with it.

Below is another image of yesterday, showing Keyhole USA 129 (96-072A) crossing at mag. +1 close to the coma cluster (here shown at reduced resolution, so some of the fainter stars are lost).

(click image to enlarge)