Ein Flare von einem geheimen Satelliten …?

Unverhofft kommt oft – so wie heute Abend: „the observation took place at 20:22 UTC on 10 August from 50.77 N 7.18 E (that is Sankt Augustin, Germany) with the object moving from NE to NW at perhaps 30° elevation, slightly falling.

At first there was a tremendous flare in the NNE, to at least -5 mag., rising and fading symmetrically over perhaps one second (like a good Iridium flare).

Then it was invisible to the naked eye, but a few seconds later another weak flare of perhaps +2 mag., now in the NNW and slightly lower in elevation. Then the object was gone for good.“

Nach anfänglicher Verwirrung scheint der mutmaßliche KH-11-Aufklärungssatellit USA-245 (siehe Heavens-Above-Track) zu der Beobachtung zu passen, mit spekularer Reflexion an den Solarzellen vielleicht?

Sagt ein niederländischer Satellitenexperte dazu: „That is a good candidate – it did pass around that time, and like the other KH-11 it frequently flares brightly, both long duration flares and short specular ones (sometimes on the same pass, repeatedly). What causes these flares is not clear.“