Non-point-source satellites

From: JamesOberg@aol.com
Date: Fri Aug 03 2001 - 08:41:45 PDT

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    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
    
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