JPL has posted the trajectory for Friday's launch of the Dawn spacecraft, starting approximately 4 minutes from 3rd stage separation, which occurs about 28 minutes after launch. Observers around the Indian Ocean (Africa, India, W Australia) will have the best chance to see it as it comes into sunlight at approximately 2100z on Jul 7 at about 11,000 km range from Perth or Capetown. As it moves away from the Earth and eastward over the southern hemisphere, it will be above the horizon for most of the Earth for at least a few hours that and following mornings, but will be at significant range (100,000s km), so a medium to large telescope and CCD is needed to attempt to image it then. http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/ http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?horizons ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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