Well, I just thought I'd add my own experiences of the double flyby which was witnessed by the US and Europe. I noticed that the sky was perfectly clear all through the afternoon, and by the time evening came, I was all ready for what was scheduled to be a relatively dim (mag. -1) but spectacular double pass. I went out to the nearby field at about 19:10, in preparation for the apparition of the Shuttle leading the ISS across the sky. There was a nice conjunction with the Moon above Jupiter to keep me busy while I waited for them to appear, and also as a reference point - the pair were scheduled to pass right next to Jupiter. I used this as a reference to align my camera (I took some pictures, but haven't processed them yet). The scene was just so quiet - the dying evening glow providing just enough light for me to see the faint colours of the landscape around me. There were no cars going past, and the only sound I could hear was the occasional tweet from birds settling down for the evening. As I was just standing and listening to this amazing ambience in the warm evening, I suddenly saw them appear. I could only see one point at first - the station cutting through the last glow of the sunset. It gradually climbed higher, and got ever brighter as it got closer to me. When the brightening dot climbed to the altitude of Jupiter, I couldn't help exclaiming out loud as I saw the leading light of Discovery - my first ever sight of a Shuttle flying on its own. There was something almost organic about the scene - two little points of light distantly synchronised in the most beautiful and simple and powerful dance-like chase I have ever seen. In a way, I suppose they were living - two little habitats each with half a dozen people, separating for the last time. The amazing beauty and power of the scene was much more overriding than the slight sadness it brought, and I felt so happy to have been able to catch one glance of flying alone Discovery in my life - something I was beginning to fear I would never see. As they faded one by one into the shadow, I knew that what I had seen from this quiet rural field in the dying evening light would stay with me for a long time. Location: 53N, 0.7W Time: approx. 19:22GMT I will try and upload the photos I took when I process them tonight - they aren't great, but at least you can see them! George Kristiansen ( http://gkastro.tk/ ). _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l
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