Hi all, I observed the trajectory of the Atlas 5 rocket from the roof here. I first spotted it while scanning the sky at around 22:12 UTC with 12x60 binoculars. Not many stars were visible but I saw TWO objects and not just one. They were about 0,2 degree apart with the brightest one lower and farther behind. It was around mag 2.5 and steady. The higher object was leading but flashing with maxima around mag 2 at the brightest. These maxima were not regular. I quit my binos to watch the time, it was 22:14 but when I came back to look for the objects I momentarily lost them. I regained contact with the steady object a while later but by then, the flashing one had disappeared. I followed the steady one without interruption until it was lost in shadow (I presume) at 22:15:14 ± 1,5 sec. Elevation was around 9 degrees at the beginning at an estimated azimuth of 173 degrees. I lost the object at about 17 degree elevation (too uncertain about the azimuth). Both object were orang in color. I had a bit of trouble with my eyes because of my contact lenses that were moving making my vision blurred a few times during the first minute of the obs. It was a nice sight but no cloud or rocket engine manœuvres were seen. I was lucky the sky cleared suddenly at the end of the afternoon. I will try later for the second pass after its first orbit. Daniel Deak Webmestre, site Obsat Pompier, municipalite de L'Avenir, Quebec COSPAR site 1747 : 45.7275°N, 72.3526°W, 191 m., UTC-4:00 Site en francais sur les satellites: French-language satellite web site : http://www.obsat.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Dec 10 2007 - 22:41:27 UTC