Hi: This posting is off-topic, but it might be of interest to See-Sat members. Back in January, those of us on the U.S. west coast were treated to an artificial comet during the Minotaur/JAWSAT launch. This occurred at T+10 min. 10 sec. when the Minotaur's 4th stage ignited. It was 2 hours after sunset, but the fourth stage was high enough to be in sunlight. I was lucky enough to take an excellent photo of this "comet" directly lined-up with, and 6 degrees above, one of our local freeways. I'm wondering how far away the fourth stage was from me when I observed/photographed it. Here are the specifics: My Location): 34.247 deg. north 118.835 deg. west elevation above sea level 0.1 nautical miles Fourth Stage Position at Ignition 15.067 deg. north 127.518 deg. west Altitude 402.7 nautical miles Fourth Stage Position at Burnout 11.717 deg. north 128.241 deg. west Altitude 405.9 nautical miles What was the slant range from me to the fourth stage at ignition and at burnout? By the way, the site I used is a highly restricted facility owned by a government agency. So please don't go there without permission - your presence could trigger an armed response (however, there's a good semi-open site across the highway). Thanks, Brian Webb ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Fri Jun 09 2000 - 05:10:46 PDT