Back about October 12 and 13 there were messages here about the possible observation of the re-entry of #26539 (00- 56 B), the Cosmos 2372 Zenit rocket by the pilot of an aircraft over Maseru, Losotho. Harro noted the very low altitude that the re-entering rocket must have had if viewed from that range (some 850 km or more). I pointed out that the 30,000 ft height of the vantage point could have led to a relatively long-duration and low- angular-velocity observation (for a re-entry), with the object visible through clear air, albeit at very low altitude. I am now able to forward the excellent report of the sighting provided by the pilot, Rob Champion. This agrees well with our analyses, confirming that this was, indeed, a spectacular sighting of this decay - I wish I'd seen it. Alan __________________________________________________________________ Forwarded report by Rob Champion (champion@global.co.za)... I was one of the pilots operating a flight from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg on Tuesday night (11/10) . I will attempt to give you as much detail as I can remember. - Take-off (PE) - 1717 UTC. - Landed (JNB) - 1830 UTC. - Our approximate position was S29 30.0 E 27 30.0. (within 50nm) - Altitude - 33 000' above mean sea level. - Our true heading was approximately 020 degrees. - Moon was full or very close to full and was about 60 - 80 degrees above the horizon. As far as I can remember it was not in sight during the sighting from my position in the cockpit (i.e. it was above and most likely behind the cockpit window.) It was a relatively bright night but there was little or no light from the ground. - Time of the sighting was approximately 1800 UTC. (I'm afraid I cannot be more accurate other than to say that it would not have been later than 1800) When I first saw the object it appeared to be an aircraft with its landing lights on at a distance of approximately 40nm. The light did appear more yellow than white. At this stage it was no more that 5 degrees above the horizon and 10 - 15 degrees to the right of the nose. ( True bearing of 030 -035 degrees). I did not take much notice for a minute or two until I noticed what I can describe as a "condensation trail" coming from the light. It took a moment or two for the fact to sink in that it would be impossible to see a trail at night! Now I watched a little closer and it was quite clear to see fragments falling off behind the object. These fragments would burn for a few seconds before fading. By now the object was on a true bearing of 065 - 075 degrees and at its brightest. It eventually faded when it was almost abeam of the aircraft, on a true bearing of 110 degrees. The elevation relative to the aircraft decreased very slightly during the sighting. When it disappeared it seemed to be just above the horizon - approximately 2-3 degrees. The whole event lasted approximately 3-5 minutes. Sometimes when seeing something like this time stands still so it can be difficult to judge the time span accurately. When I saw the "tail" clearly for the first time I brought it to the attention of my colleague on the flight deck. We then still had time to call two of the flight attendants forward to view the object. It definitely was visible for a substantial time. I hope that these details are of some value. I will now pay more attention in the future!! Regards, Rob Champion __________________________________________________________________ -- Alan Pickup / COSPAR 2707: 55d53m48.7s N 3d11m51.2s W 156m asl Edinburgh / SatEvo & elsets: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/ Scotland / Decay Watch: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/dkwatch/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Thu Nov 02 2000 - 13:34:54 PST