Discovery was launched on time at 23:17 UTC, 11 October. I located myself about 2 km east of my home at a construction site with an excellent vied of the SSE to the NE. My scanner was tuned in to the GSFC Amateur Radio Club's rebroadcast of the ground-to-air communications 147.45 MHz. I acquired Discovery at 23:24:05 in the SSE about 4 deg above the horizon. The length of the flame seemed much shorter that the on I remember from the September 1997 launch that I observed - probably due to the fact that it was just past twilight in that area of the sky. At 23:24:35 UTC it passed about 1 deg above alpha-PsA at about a -1 mag - clearly visible at 1x. At 23:25:23 it passed about 2-3 deg under a nearly full moon - still visible at 1x. At 23:25:28 a series of a dozen or so flashes (short burns?) began. Most were only a second in duration. Well after MECO confirmation there was a 10 sec burn that ended at 23:26:01 UTC. Maybe external fuel tank separation? A series of short flashes followed ending at 23:26:10. Great sight. I'm hoping for darker skies for the next one. Cheers Don Gardner 39.1799 N, 76.8406 W, 100m ASL http://hometown.aol.com/mir16609/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 : Wed Oct 11 2000 - 16:56:13 PDT