Pretty neat imagery! Not surprisingly, I just had to think about
this one for a good while. I was puzzled by the cloud being a
streak in the images and also why it didn't get wider over time.
After some research here and there, I found the answers. Really
important are (1) the fuel dump occurred during ascent (increasing
height above the sub-satellite point) in the transfer orbit (I had
at first assumed it was a geosynchronous height, as we have seen
from here a time or two.) and (2) each image is a three-minute time
exposure. So the result is that in each successive exposure, the
(very bright!) cloud is higher (Thus, the changing perspective due
to increasing distance accounts for it not expanding as would a
stationary cloud.) and moves through a shorter segment of arc.
At this location online are both Haleakala ("HL", on Maui) and
Mauna Kea (MK, on the "Big Island" of Hawaii) images taken at the
same times:
http://bb.nightskylive.net/asterisk/viewtopic.php?t=291
I found that looking at both sets of images was very helpful. It
was not easy for me to pick out Leo in the HL images, but it's
pretty clear in the MK ones. The cloud was certainly quite bright!
On this page (p. 2), there's an eyewitness description (naked-eye
followed by telescopic observation) by "Guest" with the post
subject: "night sky weirdom" posted at 7:25 am followed a little
farther down by Randy John's (first?) post with the name "Skysat",
at 8:09 am with the post subject "AMC-16" (Sorry about the long
URL; if it breaks, the page is 2 of 12.):
http://bb.nightskylive.net/asterisk/viewtopic.php?t=291&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
Kevin's (first?) post is on page 3 at 1:23 pm with the subject
"fuel dump from AMC 16 launch".
Since Randy figured it out on page 2 with agreement from Kevin
soon after, I'm just a little puzzled that there's still discussion
for 10 more pages....
Lots of clouds here recently, but worse lots of back trouble. I
haven't been satellite observing since January 8, but my back
seems finally to be really on the mend and so I'm hoping for
improving sky conditions as well.
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA
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