Vandenberg missile launch (local Thurs. evening): A heads up alert to those in California and adjacent areas. http://www.vandenberg.af.mil/30sw/news/news_releases_02.htm In the past, these kind of launches have put on very interesting celestial displays for viewers in California and even adjacent states (esp. Arizona, Nevada). If it goes after local sunset, then the backlighting of the just set sun is key to there being an especially good display. If it launches too far into the evening (beyond maybe about 1.5 hrs after sunset), then the backlighting effect is gone due to the sun being too far below the horizon. The missile's fire-exhaust could still be seen of course, if you are close enough and barring clouds or with binoculars or a telescope from farther locations. The other reason that this might be seen from such great distances is due to the very steep launch trajectory taking the missile very high into space (900 mi.?, I read once). This also might be seen from northwest Mexico but I've never seen a report from there on these type launches. I seem to remember a report in the past of one of these type launch displays being seen from aircraft high over New Mexico. I'm taking the liberty of quoting below from the e-mail alert by launch enthusiast Brian Webb: -------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY MISSILE LAUNCH A Minuteman III ICBM is scheduled for launch this Thursday evening from Vandenberg AFB. The vehicle will probably leave its silo at 18:01 PDT, the start of a 6-hour launch window. Because Thursday's launch will occur before sunset, the event will probably not be visible beyond a 100 mile radius from the silo. <end of quote> ------------------------------------------------ Keep in mind that while the California coast is still in sunlight, Arizona will be in twilight or dark. The March 15, 2002 launch of this type was delayed just enough that it did put on a great display for Los Angeles just after sunset and also for points east. That evening I saw video of it from both LA and Arizona. The 18:01 local time holds for California, Nevada, and Arizona since CA & NV are in the same Pacific time zone and both states observe daylight savings time. Arizona is in the Mountain zone but since they don't observe daylight savings time, then 18:01 PDT equals 18:01 MST. -- Jake Rees ------------------------------------------- Introducing NetZero Long Distance Unlimited Long Distance only $29.95/ month! Sign Up Today! www.netzerolongdistance.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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
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