Minuteman launch

R_John@ms.riem.com
Fri, 18 Sep 1998 09:59:16 -0700

I saw it last night through a 4 inch refractor from my home near
San Francisco.  At one power it was bright orange, but not as
bright as Jupiter, and moving very fast.  It also did not seem
to rise as high as other ICBM tests I have seen.  Was that real
or imaginary?  Could someone comment on this?

I saw it from about 1:03:30 on.  If Brian Webb's mail message of
a few days ago is correct I saw about 30 seconds of powered flight
on the third stage.  With the naked eye it appeared to have a
hazy glow around it which I attributed to high clouds.  Through
the telescope this haze continued even after burn-out.  In the
scope I continued to watch the tumbling and still glowing third
stage for about another 30 seconds.  It flashed about once every
5 seconds and eventually became to dim and I lost it.  I didn't
catch too much detail during powered flight since I had to move
the telescope at the last second.

				Randy