On Sat, Dec 09, 2006 at 09:54:06PM -0500, Don Gardner wrote: > Nice to have the night launches back. > > >From Alpha Ridge Park in Maryland (39.3058 N, 76.8992 W, 146mALS): > The shuttle was not an easy target until about T+ 6 minutes - then it was > about -1.5 mag about as bright as Sirius. I saw it from Wayland, Mass (42.3719 N, 71.3850 W, 40 M ALS). Dodging into and out of thin layers of cloud - my 12 year old son who was watching it through 7 power binos says he thought he could see the thruster firings after MECO as the external tank separated - when we played back the video from NASA and HDNET he was quite sure the pattern of flashes he saw matched the downlinked video from the tank. It was distinctly orange and at least -1 magnitude, as bright as Jupiter or Venus but more diffuse. It resembled the Lacrosse launch we saw from the same exact site in Wayland, but was much lower in the S and SSE horizon than that vehicle was. -- Dave Emery N1PRE, die@dieconsulting.com DIE Consulting, Weston, Mass 02493 "An empty zombie mind with a forlorn barely readable weatherbeaten 'For Rent' sign still vainly flapping outside on the weed encrusted pole - in celebration of what could have been, but wasn't and is not to be now either." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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