At 20:12 7/04/01 , Moritz Heger wrote: >Based on Boern Gimbles data I should have a pass of the launched vehicle >over my house reaching a maximum elevation of 45° in the north-east. Is >there any chance (if the typical Central European cloud layer we have as >always vanishes; I don't remember one clear night the last month!) to see >the vehicle, especially when the engines are running? The position of the >sun then is 25=B0 elevated above the western horizon. Moritz, you havent got a hope of seeing a delta upper stage in daylight. >When launched towards the ISS, the STS (Space Shuttle) also often is over >the horizon in Europe during its first orbit. Could the STS and other higher >inclination orbit satellite launches be seen during daylight or while >passing the earths shadow with running engines, or are these in operation >over Europe at all? The STS are visible in daylight telescopically. Since the shuttle main engines on an ISS bound trajectory cut out near US coast, one doesnt have a chance to see them burning in Europe at all. The much smaller engines used for orbital manouvers may not be obvious from the ground, even in the Earth's shadow. I may be wrong, but I dont think any body has reported them. The waste water dumps are more spectacular. One can see upper stage burns of launch vehicles, and dump's of excess fuel. However a lot of the effect is from the reactions between the exhaust and the upper atmosphere. Tony Beresford Adelaide , So. Australia ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Apr 07 2001 - 07:51:49 PDT