1979!

Got to go out for about 10 minutes (which was plenty 'cause it was COLD outside, probably around 20 F. Brrrrrr. My goal was simply to see as specific object which was launched in 1979. And I got it. Take that space junk! Only 10 more years to go!

Here's the time-line for the morning of:
Date: 17-Dec-2010 Friday

7:09 PM - Resurs 1-4 Rocket - 2.1 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1998-043-G
Ahhh, another sighting of ye olde bright and faithful. This is sighting number 23 of this Zenit-2 rocket.

7:12 PM - Meteor 2-5 Rocket - 4.2 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1979-095-B
This is my first sighting of this Vostok-2M rocket, which was used to launched the Russian Meteor 2-5 meteorological satellite into orbit. Some Vostok-2M trivia for ya: 1) The first Vostok-2M launch occurred in 1964 to launch Kosmos 44 (one of the original 'old' satellites I was trying to see) 2) In 1980, a Vostok-2M scheduled to launch Kosmos 1169 exploded on the launch pad during fueling, killing 48 people.

7:12 PM - IRAS - 4.8 Magnitude
Int'l Designator: 1983-004-A
This is my second sighting of the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS).



I still need to see satellites from the following years: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1973, and 1979.