Observed here in Charleston,SC. Fainter than usual until booster separation, then brighter than normal. Observed until it almost crossed the full moon. With the launch just after sunset I was able to see the smoke trail lit up like a rope of fire several minutes after the launch. Also, of great interest to me, several minutes after shuttle disappeared there was a bright white cloud in the direction of where it had ascended. this cloud was probably very high altitude as it remained very bright for a good 20 minutes after the launch, and the sun was well below the horizon. Went to church after launch and everyone was standing around looking at this cloud wondering what it was. The cloud combined with the fiery red smoke trail made quite an impressive sight. No other clouds around. I know there is a rare weather phenomenon of a high altitude cloud now and then, so does anyone know whether this was something from the shuttle or a weather thing. ----- Original Message ----- From: <Mir16609@aol.com> To: <SeeSat-L@blackadder.lmsal.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2001 8:23 PM Subject: STS-98 Launch Obs > Hello Everyone. > > Three straight Shuttle launches. I must be on a roll. > > Observing Site: > Carrs Mill --- 39.3183N, 77.0338W, 100m ALS > Conditions: Haze, Partly Cloudy > > First at 23:05 UTC the ISS was observed at about a -1 mag passing R->L above > Sirius (Az 135, El 20 deg). There was enough ambient light that the copper > color was not obvious. > > Goddard Amateur Radio Club is having a problem with their feeds from the > shuttle. This rendered the scanner useless for launch info. A quick call > home confirmed that the shuttle had launched 2 minutes late at 23:13 UTC. > It's really nice to have the actual launch time when observing conditions are > marginal. At 23:18:30 I acquired the Shuttle low in the SE at about a +1 > Mag. As it passed through the clear parts of the sky it was as bright as > Sirius. I believe that I observer the "throttle back" at 23:19. AT 23:21:30 > MECO ended the show. It was much too hazy to see the External Fuel Tank > separation burns. > > Cheers, > Don Gardner 39.1799 N, 76.8406 W, 100m ASL > http://hometown.aol.com/mir16609/ > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > 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 > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Wed Feb 07 2001 - 19:35:28 PST