Hi again, I just made a particular observation. Atlantis was predicted to make a second pass at 2:51 UTC but the area of the sky where she would appear was cloudy with lightning seen far away. But at around 30 deg elevation I could see stars so I waited for the shuttle just in case. Well, it was worth the try. It suddenly appeared low in the NNW just above the thunderstorm clouds (sky was flashing with lightning) and its brightness kept on increasing at a steady and fast rate. Its color was orange due to high humidity and it got to about an incredible mag -4 when it reached about 335 deg azimuth. It then slowly faded and disappeared from view long before entering shadow. Culmination was at about 15 deg elevation. I checked with Starry Night and verified that brightness of Atlantis was maximum when it got in line with me and the sun. It was then flying inverted and sideways with its left wing in the direction of travel. Given that, I guess a saw a shuttle wing flare coming from the wings white upper surfaces. The sun angle was very favorable and caused the brightness to increase so sharply. It was really something to see ! Daniel Deak Webmestre, site Obsat Pompier, municipalite de L'Avenir, Quebec COSPAR site 1747 : 45.7275°N, 72.3526°W, 191 m., UTC-4:00 Site en francais sur les satellites: French-language satellite web site : http://www.obsat.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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