"Douglas Berry" wrote in message
...
Actually, we always had my telescope along. We followed it all the
way to SRB seperation. After that, it quickly became hard to track.
But I was told that at night launches you could see it shut down
engines.

I've been fortunate enough to see MECO a few times during night launches.
Fascinating to listen to the mission comms and hear "Main Engine CutOff" as
the pale blue light winks out. The blinking red "taillights" of the SRB's
falling away is quite a site too.

The next night we could spot the shuttle in orbit (depending
on the orbital track)

I would stand up in court, and swear I had seen the Shuttle launch
into orbit seven times. I was present for an eigth launch, but the
shuttle was destroyed 67 seconds after launch. Saw that clearly..
shudder.

I was riding down an escalator at the mall in Green Bay, WI when I noticed
people were clambering for the electronics store windows. We watched it
again and again, on television screens of several dimensions and it never
got any easier...
--
Stephen
Home Page: stephmon.com
Satellite Hunting: sathunt.com