wrote:
Justa Lurker wrote:

Watched the shuttle fly up the East Coast past Central NJ (Monmouth
County)......went down to the end of our street [Colts Neck, NJ] a
couple of minutes after launch, and waited several minutes more. Sure
enough, orange-yellowish fairly bright/fuzzy spot of light, moving from
south to north at a speed obviously greater than other air traffic,
appeared as expected.


So you saw the three SSMEs that clearly after the boosters separated
from New Jersey? That's outstanding. I wonder if I would have been able
to see it from Central Connectcicut. Does anyone know if that would be
possibe?

Thanks.

Yes, you could have seen it from anywhere in Connecticut with a clear
sky to the southern horizon and no light pollution. My friend is quite
sure he saw it from Saratoga Springs, NY which is about 175-miles north
of NYC. He said it looked like a small fuzzy orange ball of light in his
binoculars. It moved slowly from right to left, a few degrees above the
SSE horizon. It was also visible to the naked eye at about magnitude-0.
He's an amateur astronomer so I doubt he was confused by a celestial
object like a star, planet or aircraft.