A plot of the Modified Minuteman launch of July 7th showing the full powered trajectory and location of staging events as viewed from my observing location (near San Jose, CA.) can be seen at: FULL Trajectory: http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=940828&a=2571482&p=24196455 Close-up of first 1 minute of flight: http://albums.photopoint.com/j/ViewPhoto?u=940828&a=2571482&p=24195425 The plots were made with SKYMAP using a trajectory file (.TRJ) I created from actual observations of the launch (see file below). Except for perhaps the first 40 seconds of the trajectory which I cannot see from 200 miles away, the plotted path is accurate in time to 1 second and track to better than 0.1 degree all the way to burnout. Launch silo coordinates at Vandenberg not known to great accuracy, but should be close. MSLS (Minuteman II) Launch, July 7, 2000 Approximate launch time 9:18:06pm PDT (4h18m06s UT on the 8th) SKYMAP .TRJ file for full powered trajectory of missile. 0.0 34.7970 -120.6160 0.00 33.0 34.791 -120.6770 17.50 50.0 34.779 -120.7990 28.20 60.0 34.7670 -120.9200 37.00 72.0 34.7420 -121.1610 53.00 78.0 34.7230 -121.3410 64.40 94.0 34.6850 -121.6980 87.90 102.0 34.6530 -121.9950 107.40 118.0 34.5880 -122.5810 144.00 130.0 34.5350 -123.0450 172.50 146.0 34.4530 -123.7310 216.00 152.0 34.4180 -124.0150 234.00 168.0 34.3120 -124.8540 286.10 179.0 34.2250 -125.5140 326.50 FORMAT FOR ABOVE: Time (sec after launch), LAT, LONG, ALT (in KM) I obtained a pretty good video of the entire flight, even well past burn-out. Two real good staging events and tumbling spent boosters were recorded. My video shows stars to about mag 6, which is how I was able to fit the trajectory file so well. Can anyone recommend the software for me to turn my Hi-8 video into an MPEG or other format so I can share it on the web? Any help would be greatly appreciated, even if it's just an opinion. Thanks. RICK BALDRIDGE ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Tue Jul 11 2000 - 15:49:01 PDT