ASTRONOMY/SPACE ALERT FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Brian Webb, KD6NRP Ventura County, California E-mail: 102670.1206@compuserve.com Web Site: http://home.earthlink.net/~kd6nrp 2001 September 30 (Sunday) 10:50 PDT ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Titan IV Launch Tomorrow A Titan IV booster carrying a classified payload is scheduled for launch tomorrow (October 1) from Vandenberg AFB at 14:19 PDT. The booster will lift-off from SLC-4E at south Vandenberg, climb steeply, and then begin heading south. Several minutes later, the National Reconnaissance Office payload should be inserted into a polar orbit. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Viewing Locations The Titan IV is the largest unmanned launch vehicle in the U.S. inventory. Its massive solid rocket motors create an impressive display - even during daylight launches. Weather permitting, the launch should be visible for at least 150 miles. The weather along the Santa Barbara County coast will probably be clear at launch time. If it is, best launch viewing locations will be near the south gate of Vandenberg AFB and the parking lot of Refugio State Beach. In my opinion the better of the two sites is Refugio State Beach. It's is located about 18 miles west of the west end of Santa Barbara. From this location, the Titan IV will fly by you and you'll get a side view of the burn of the solid rocket motors from close range. If you're at either of the above locations and fog or low clouds move in prior to launch, head inland for clearer skies. If you're near the south gate of the base, take highway 246 east. If you're at Refigio State Beach, take Camino del Refugio (Refugio Road) uphill. If low clouds or fog are present in coastal Santa Barbara County on Monday and have not cleared by 09:00 PDT, I would recommend viewing the launch from higher ground. In this case the best sites would be Santa Ynez Peak or the Cement Water Cistern in the mountains north of Santa Barbara (directions to these sites are on my web site under "Viewing Vandenberg AFB Missile Launches"). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Countdown Status The best source of countdown status will be the Spaceflight Now web site (http://www.spaceflightnow.com/titan/b34/status.html). Be sure to press the reload button on your browser to see the latest information. Countdown status will be also be available beginning at T-1 hour on the Vandenberg Launch Net. The primary net will be conducted on the WB6OBB amateur radio repeater which is located north of Santa Barbara. This repeater simulcasts on the following channels: Frequency Tone (MHz) Offset (Hz) --------- ------ ----- 147.000 + 131.8 224.900 - 131.8 449.300 - 131.8 For the benefit of observers in outlying areas, a secondary Vandenberg Launch Net will be held on the Condor linked repeater system. This system simulcasts over the following amateur radio repeaters: Frequency Tone (MHz) Offset (Hz) Callsign Location --------- ------ ----- -------- ---------------- 223.840 - 156.7 K7GIL Victorville 223.940 - 141.3 WV6H San Diego 223.940 - 156.7 WB6RHQ Thousand Oaks 224.000 - 156.7 N6HYM Santa Barbara 224.180 - 156.7 WB6RHQ Palm Springs 224.640 - 156.7 WB6RHQ Lake Isabella 224.720 - 156.7 N6XKI Gorman 224.820 - 141.3 WB6GBK Lompoc 224.820 - 156.7 KJ6J Orange County 224.880 - 156.7 WB6RUF Kingman, Arizona 224.900 - 156.7 WB6BRU Fresno 224.900 - 156.7 W8IXD Las Vegas 224.920 - 156.7 N6HYMT San Luis Obispo ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Launch Excursion I'm planning on viewing tomorrow's launch from the parking lot of Refugio State Beach. If you're interested in joining me, send me an e-mail with your home telephone number. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Double Messages If you receive two copies of this message, don't worry. The double messages are caused by a mail server problem. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Sep 30 2001 - 14:16:08 EDT