I made what was likely my final observation of Mir tonight, 2001 Mar 12 at 00:48:46 UTC: 16609 86 017A 2701 G 20010312004846210 17 25 0319288-215451 28 S+035 05 I observed as Mir reached its greatest elevation, about 8 deg above my south-western horizon. I followed it using mounted 11x80 binoculars, until it disappeared into Earth's shadow. It became invisible at about 00:50:09 UTC. Mir was in this orbit: 1 16609U 86017A 01071.01152826 .00381596 83469-4 39192-3 0 6774 2 16609 51.6370 310.7162 0008078 124.3090 235.8729 16.10065919861490 Clouds had prevented observations in recent days, so I was glad to be able to make this farewell observation. (Actually, there is a definite slim chance that I could observe tomorrow's 5 deg pass, weather permitting, which would truly be my last chance to see Mir.) My most memorable observations of Mir took place in late June 1986. Mir's orbit was continuously illuminated, and its passes occurred during the night. I happened to be on a business trip in Winnipeg, which is near 50 deg N, which gave me the perfect opportunity to observe several consecutive, high-elevation passes on a single night. I had a small computer with me, which I used to predict each pass. I set my alarm clock to awaken me about 10 min before each pass. I threw on some clothes, and rushed out to a dark corner of the hotel parking lot, and enjoyed the view. I did not record the number of passes that I observed, but I doubt that it was more than three. I was not trying to set a record; I just wanted to see several consecutive high passes, which is impossible from Toronto, where I live. There was lots to see, because both Mir and Salyut 7 were in the same orbital plane. In fact, Mir's first crew, Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyev, was aboard Salyut 7 at the time of my observations. Their spacecraft was Soyuz T-15, which they had first docked to Mir. Then after several weeks, they un-docked from Mir and rendezvoused and docked with Salyut 7. I believe that makes Soyuz T-15 the first spacecraft to have rendezvoused and docked with two different space stations. During breakfast on my final day in Winnipeg (1986 Jun 25), I read in the newspaper that the Mir crew planned to un-dock Soyuz T-15 from Salyut 7 that day, and then re-rendezvous and dock with Mir. The pre-announcement in itself was exciting news - a tangible and welcome result of Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of greater openness. I knew that this might provide a rare opportunity to see a Soyuz in close proximity to either Salyut or Mir, and my scheduled return home to Toronto might just be in time to attempt an observation that night. I arrived home with less than one hour to spare. The sky was clear, but not yet completely dark. I had an excellent view from the roof of my apartment building. Mir passed first, culminating at about 80 deg elevation in the north on 1986 June 26 at 02:58 UTC. Several minutes later, I spotted Salyut 7 approaching from the west, and a few seconds later I spotted Soyuz T-15, leading Salyut 7 by perhaps 10 degrees. It was a beautiful sight. Ted Molczan ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Sun Mar 11 2001 - 20:57:06 PST