Another Keyhole flare

Although the skies were somewhat hazy, observations were conducted on the evenings of April 15th and 16th. Targets were the various IGS objects (1B, 5A, 5r/b), the Lacrosse 5 r/b, and the KH-12 Keyholes USA 129 and USA 186.

USA 186 was so friendly as to flare in my camera image on the 16th. The flare occurred at 20:43:40.75 UTC (Apr 16). Below is the image, and the resulting profile (with saturation at the peak). The two bright stars are the front stars of the pan of the Big Dipper, alpha and beta Uma.

click images to enlarge