Hi again, I'm not completely awakened, half asleep, I'll try not to forget something... It was the most spectacular fuel dumnp I've seen since the Delta II second stage in February 2000. Lucille and I got out about 5 minutes before the predicted NOSS pass in Cepheus using this elset : MES2 1010 X 1208 km 1 70999U 05034.37193286 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 08 2 70999 63.4167 155.0000 0132437 179.7272 98.8000 13.39694040 03 Lucille was checking the sky at 1x while I was seting up my 20x80. As soon as she checked high in the sky, there it was ! The propellant dump had occured before shadow exit and we saw the plume immediately after shadow exit. It was higher in the sky than expected, very bright and greenish. The shape was an elongated triangle pointing downward while traveling toward azimuth 30 deg. Size was already about 7 or 8 degrees. There was a diffuse glow around the triangle having the appearance of wings. Just below the triangle were two objects. The one near and slightly to the left of the summit of the triangle was the faintest but visible at 1x, I would say mag. 3.5. A bit lower, maybe 1.5 degree, was the second object, the Centaur stage, at mag. 2 with a more orange color. The plume was not connected to the Centaur. Here are two very approximate positions for the objects, sorry no timing for these two positions as I prefered to enjoy the sight : #1 RA 10h30m dec + 59° uncertainty ± 5° #2 RA 3h00m dec + 88° uncertainty ± 1.5° Then I got into more serious business and tried to get at least one accurate timing. While chasing the objects with my 20x80, I noticed I could resolve the upper one into two very near objects aligned in the direction of motion. These were definitely the NOSS satellites. The Centaur stage was then about 2 degrees lower and a bit in front of the satellites. Here is the position obtained for the satellite pair : RA 22h27.51m dec +63d58.9m uncertainty of ± 3 arcmin at 9:40:30.9 UTC ± 1 sec. I was not able to get a radio time signal to rely on, so I used the USNO clock sync to check my timing. The plume continued to grow ans was still easy to see at 1x as it reached the horizon. Its size was then about 15 degrees. My feeling is that the fuel dump was made in the orbital plane perpendicular to the velocity vector and toward space. I would like to share more details, but I have to get a little sleep before going to work... It was au unforgetable experience. Thanks Ted for your orbital data ! Dan -- Daniel Deak Webmestre, site Obsat L'Avenir, Quebec COSPAR site 1747 : 45.7275°N, 72.3526°W, 191 m., UTC-5:00 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
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