I'm writing an article for an astronomy magazine about non-point-source earth satellite observations. What sorts of strange and exciting non-point-source satellites have YOU seen in the sky? I'm thinking not only of tethers and of formation-flights, but dynamic events such as water dumps, fuel spills, even engine firings. I remember the tingling thrill I got as I watched the lost STS-75 tether pass over my home before dawn, just five years ago, and as it climbed in the sky the line shortened until with a real shock I fully 'sensed' the three-dimensionality of the sky and the foreshortening of the tether hanging down from the sky towards me. I get a thrill watching chaser and target satellites passing across the sky, noting the parallel -- but displaced -- course due to the passage of a few minutes and Earth's rotation eastwards through the orbital plane -- the ultimate 'seat-of-your-pants' proof of planetary rotation! I've read accounts of mass amazement at rocket fuel dumps -- like the one in August 1986 when thousands of North Americans were outside waiting for the Perseids -- and mass panic in Argentina when Russian rockets regularly perform Molniya-orbit insertion burns half a rev after launch from Plesetsk, then dump fuel which becomes a sunlit cloud crossing the sky (see http://www.debunker.com/texts/giant_ufo.html). At Cerro Tololo, once, they even got photographs of the rocket plume from the stage. I'm collecting stories, sketchs, and photos of items such as this. Jim Oberg www.jamesoberg.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Fri Aug 03 2001 - 08:42:31 PDT