From Jan Philips:
(When you introduced yourself as Jud McCranie, I'm sure everyone was
wondering where the name "Jan Philips" came from.)

Jud McCranie is my real name. I started to use "Jan Philips" on most
newsgroups a few years ago because a guy started flaming me anytime he
saw my real name in any newsgroup. (Maybe it is safe to go back in
the water now.)

I can relate to that! I hope to see this become a sci.space standard:
Any crude form of rebuttal can always be replaced with a solid
argument.

If you're wondering where the name "Jan Philips" came from, I have
some vacuum tubes made for the military (mil spec), called "Joint Army
Navy", and they are marked "JAN". And they're made by Philips, so
"JAN Philips"...

Cute.

I can see that you're into photography. Please let us know if you
have any launch pix or others that you'd like to share.

I'm into several things. I took some snapshots of A8, but they don't
show much. I saw a night launch of a Delta from the Cape about a week
ago that I watched from 200 miles away. I thought I might try to
photograph one of those. I'm thinking of a time exposure of a night
launch showing it arcing over to the east.

From here I couldn't see anything except the flame and the trail, with
10x binocs. I've been told that you can see Shuttle launches in the
daytime.

Great photo ops! I've seen launches from the Cape and Vandenburg from
hundreds of miles away. Certain sun angles can make for spectacular
sights.


~ CT