Paul L. Sventek wrote: I am wondering whether the upper air winds at the time were strong enough to blow the contrails the amount you describe. ________________________________________ That of course is very possible. I didn't go into all the details in my report, but most of the observations were also based on background star positions or horizon lights as 'fixed' locations. The "1st Observation Point" where I first saw the rocket rise above the hills to my South was fortuitously marked by a house light on the hill, so contrail drift was not a factor in seeing were the boosters fell relative to the first sighting point. By the same token, the final 1st stage sighting was based on this house light, and the staging was clearly to the left about 2 degrees. Darn. I should have spend the time hooking up my image intensified video camera. I could have grabbed a very interesting video. This was my 1st Titan IV observation and gave me a few surprises. I've seen many Delta II, Minuteman and four Pegasus launches now, so I'm getting some good experience. Thanks for the comments. RICK BALDRIDGE