Joey Fagan said... >I was watching NASA TV at about 12:25am EDT (4:34 UT) when the >groundtrack display indicated the shuttle would momentarily pass over >northern New York... >...Thanks to Craig Cholar for pointing out that Mir (and now the >Space Shuttle) are continuously lit by the sun this time of year. If >not for his post, I probably would not have attempted to view Discovery >so long after our local sunset here in southwest Virginia. Congrats on your STS sighting, Joey. Unfortunately, Mir isn't continously sunlit anymore; That condition lasts less than 4 days, so it's too bad that the shuttle didn't launch on the originally scheduled date in late May, which would have made it possible for observers in lower latitudes to see more high elevation passes. As I write this, Mir enters eclipse at about 47N and exits eclipse at about 38S, so my STS & Mir passes are currently low in the north, with bad phase angles. For my latitude the passes will get gradually higher in elevation as the mission progresses, but I don't think I'll get good phase angles. I hope you folks at the higher latitudes have clear skies and enjoy the show! While I'm at it, here's an STS-91 elset obtained 06-03 08:00 UT from the OIG website... STS-91 1 25356U 98034A 98154.25000000 .00000688 00000-0 70379-5 0 27 2 25356 51.6529 117.3336 0002509 250.9290 208.3732 15.80875185 56 Craig Cholar 3432P@VM1.CC.NPS.NAVY.MIL Marina, California 36.6862, -121.8050 UTC -7