TSS Observation from N. Florida MAR/13/96
Stephen Thompson (SThompson@esiusa.com)
Wed, 13 Mar 96 09:48:00 PST
Nice pass of TSS through high clouds this morning. A close look at emergence
from shadow without binoculars reveals that for several seconds the top is
brighter than the bottom, but you cannot see the brightness gradient move,
the whole thing just gets brighter until it's uniformly lit. I suspect this
is a visual response and video may show it differently. Through 20x70
binocs, as the tether approached it appeared that the bottom 1/3 was
trailing slightly. As it neared culmination at 35 degrees, it looked very
straight but the bottom 1/20 with the bright spot looked like it led
slightly. With very few visual cues and constantly changing perspective it
is difficult to be sure how any curvature is actually oriented.