Re: Depletion burn observed

Quinster7@aol.com
Tue, 17 Aug 1999 22:49:19 EDT

In a message dated 8/17/99 3:14:13 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
dan.deak@sympatico.ca writes:

<<  It looked like a horn of plenty
 roughly parallel to the horizon with its right tip curved to reach the rocket
 which was at mag 4 or 5. It was 1 degree in size at first and grew
 rapidly to 5 degrees while getting more diffuse and following the rocket. >>

Exactly what I observed from here in Raleigh, NC (35.8853N 78.5253W) moving 
north from Vega, at around 50o elevation in the NW.  Spectacular!  Easily the 
coolest satellite observation of my "career" yet - even next to the Okean-O r 
!!!  I'm glad I got up at 2:30AM to see it.  Horn of plenty was exactly what 
I thought of when I saw it, and it really appeared that propellant was 
spraying out of the rocket - as in, I could see movement in the cloud itself 
- naked eye it was quite apparent and quickly became large and (more) 
diffuse, barely detectable.  I did not observe the 4 globalstar satellites, 
although I panned the sky for them, perhaps in the wrong direction (ahead of 
the rocket).  Thanks for all the posted information!  When's the next such 
event? :)

Quinn McCleery, all smiles
Raleigh, NC
35.8853N
78.5253W