My observations were: At 21:42:16 (UT) two objects become visible: - upper object mag. +0.5 constant - lower object mag. +1.5, variable and orange, photometric period 21 seconds. (may be I missed one maximum). Close to shadow entry: - upper object mag. -1.5 - lower object mag. -0.5 at brightest At 21:44:34 (UT) lower object emerses, soon followed by upper object I can follow upper object another 56 seconds using my 7 x 50 binoculars. I see three times an about 0.7 seconds lasting V-shaped fluffy, with possibly 6 seconds between them. Bram Dorreman, COSPAR 4160 (Achel 1): 51° 16' 45.5" N (51.2793 N), 5° 28' 36.6" E (5.4768 E) -----Original Message----- From: Leo Barhorst <leobarhorst@zonnet.nl> To: seesat-l <seesat-l@satobs.org> Date: donderdag 6 juni 2002 0:06 Subject: Shuttle and ET >Just saw the launch of Endeavour on NASA-TV via Internet. >At about 18 minutes after launch I got outside and was lucky that >the sky had broken a bit. few stars could be seen. >At 21:44 UT I saw low on the western horizon a brillant light in >between some clouds. >After emerging from this cloud I saw the shuttle and about half a >degree lower the External Tank. >STS-111 was about mag -4, as bright as Venus. The ET was >dark orange and about mag 2. After about 30 sec the ET became >brighter and got to mag -1. The both of them passed just under >Spica (Alpha Virgo). >A beautifull sight the very bright white dot of Endeavour and the >somewhat dimmer bright orange dot of the ET moving close >together. >The ET stayed several seconds that bright, dimmed to about mag 4 >again and got again brighter to about mag 1 and then dimmed >gradually until disappearing in the earth's shadow. Estimated period >about 10 seconds. Haven't seen these brightness variations with ET's. >Was is slowly tumbling? >Several seconds later the shuttle also faded away. > >It was worth it staying up late to see the launch and the nice pass of the >two sats. Had they launched on time several days ago they would have >been in shadow while passing over here. > > >Greetings and clear, dark skies >Leo Barhorst Medemblik >52.76350 N 5.09114 E 2 m ASL >http://www.home.zonnet.nl/leobarhorst/index.html > >----------------------------------------------------------------- >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/sat/seesat/seesatindex.html > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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/sat/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jun 25 2002 - 20:50:33 EDT