Saw it go past......

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.

Went behind some thin clouds a few times, but got a decent look overall
as moved across my field of view. I'd estimate about 30 degrees above
the horizon but that's just a guess.

2nd time I've seen it from here on its way to ISS, just as exciting as
the 1st. Hooray for clear (well, mostly clear :-) skies !

SPECTACALAR fire trial just ripping up the horizon, unbelievable
clarity and awesome from 150 miles away!!!
:-)

wrote:
SPECTACALAR fire trial just ripping up the horizon, unbelievable
clarity and awesome from 150 miles away!!!
:-)


No luck in Washington D.C. We were up on a hill with a view from
east around to southwest. There must be too much haze hereabouts.
A cloudless sky, but not even the brightest stars were visible to the
south.

--
Charles Packer
mailboxATcpacker.org
http://cpacker.org/whatnews

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.

Us too... Hampton, VA right on Hampton roads, straight North, from the
Norfolk Naval Station carrier piers.

Great Arc, SSW to ENE, saw Main Engine shutdown, then a series of wink in
and outs as tank was released and the OMS where pumped. then a slow fade.

Had my laptop running with NASA TV, and the launch on ORBITER (about 1 mike
ahead of real time) to match what I saw to the events. BTW wireless, laptop
and NASA TV, great combo.

Break, course the 10 year daughter was inside watching Jim O on TV.

v/r
Ward

On Sat, 9 Dec 2006 21:46:50 -0500, "Ward C. Douglas"
wrote:

Break, course the 10 year daughter was inside watching Jim O on TV.

....And if you didn't take any pictures, you're getting a spanking :-P

OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
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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


I saw it too from just about the same location (just north of Asbury
Park, NJ). I had to climb on my roof to get high enough to see over
some trees in my neighborhood.

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.

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
possible?

(whoops, didn't hit "Reply Group"... second attempt now

I've seen it twice (STS-108 and -113) from east-central Massachusetts.
There's a bit of high ground at a local country club near the family house
in my hometown, and we found that if we left right after SRB separation, we
arrived at the country club parking lot just in time to see the last eight
or ten seconds of powered flight before MECO. It's been a while but I'd
guess it was about 15-20 degrees above the horizon. Even with a bit of cloud
and city lighting it was very hard to miss, especially since something about
the engine exhaust causes flashing right before MECO (you can see this
clearly on the ET video now; at the time, when I asked about it here, nobody
believed me!

Being further south in CT I certainly think you can see it, if you can find
a good hill with dark skies somewhere.

Sorry to say, that despite years of Snoopy Team work, and various
misadventures with my camera, Nope.

Was more focused on the making sure the 10 & 3 year old saw and understood.

BTW amazing the impact ORBITER (our trip to KSC) is having on Ruth (the 3
year old) she gets the "going into orbit" thing and "we're on a ball". She
even counted down and called the rollwith the NASA talker. Currently
ORBITER is running neck in neck with Dora as her favorite computer game
(Especially watch Daddy short is KSC landings)

r/
Ward



"OM" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 9 Dec 2006 21:46:50 -0500, "Ward C. Douglas"
wrote:

Break, course the 10 year daughter was inside watching Jim O on TV.

...And if you didn't take any pictures, you're getting a spanking :-P

OM
--
]=====================================[
] OMBlog - http://www.io.com/~o_m/omworld [
] Let's face it: Sometimes you *need* [
] an obnoxious opinion in your day! [
]=====================================[