I've seen only 1 burn before. It was a shuttle OMS burn on the original tethered satellite mission. The shuttle was in sunlight and the ground (where I was) was in darkness. When it passed overhead, the burn started. It started looking like a gas discharge and then stabilized into a constant cone (20 deg?), at least several degrees long. I was watching it with binoculars, but several others had a clear view with the naked eye. I assume most of it were particles lit up by the sun so for a total darkness burn, I'm not sure what you would see. What I saw though was really neat! Bill Bard wtba@eci-esyst.com -------------------------------------- Date: 8/27/97 9:09 PM From: Tony Beresford Fellow observers, With all the recently launched satellites that use their own low thrust rocket motors to get to final orbit, shouldnt we be seeing some evidence of such activity, like glowing patches of exhaust gases near such objects. Perhaps somebody like Phil Chien can comment on when such activity takes place. If of course its always at times when the ground is illuminated we wont see anything. It also may be geographically limited so accurate tracking can be done, Tony Beresford