Re: Should we be seeing rock

Bill Bard (wtba@eci-esyst.com)
28 Aug 1997 07:54:20 -0400

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