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Stardust not sighted from Santa Cruz



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 15th 06, 07:07 PM posted to sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe
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Default Stardust not sighted from Santa Cruz

We attempted to view the Stardust reentry from Santa Cruz California,
from a site with unobstructed view of the northern horizon. Weather
conditions were excellent; a few scattered clouds, but the northern
horizon appeared to be cloud-free, major stars in circumpolar
constellations were readily visible to the naked eye (limiting
magnitude from about 3.5 to 4). We watched the northern sky from about
01:50 to 02:10 PST, however did not see any sign of the reentry.

  #2  
Old January 15th 06, 09:48 PM posted to sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe
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Default Stardust not sighted from Santa Cruz

We attempted to view the Stardust reentry from Santa Cruz California,
from a site with unobstructed view of the northern horizon.


That's not possible. A mountain range blocks your view of the northern horizon.
If you were looking from Santa Cruz over those mountains,
then you were looking somewhat high in the sky, too high to see Stardust.
  #3  
Old January 16th 06, 12:48 AM posted to sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe
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Default Stardust not sighted from Santa Cruz

We attempted to view the Stardust reentry from Santa Cruz California,
from a site with unobstructed view of the northern horizon.


That's not possible. A mountain range blocks your view of the northern horizon.
If you were looking from Santa Cruz over those mountains,
then you were looking somewhat high in the sky, too high to see Stardust.


I sure hope my girlfriend isn't reading this group ("You got me up at 2
AM to look at this thing, AND IT WAS BLOCKED BY MOUNTAINS????" ;-))

But I don't think mountains were the problem. We weren't in Santa Cruz
proper, but a few miles down the coast in Aptos, at lat 36.9764, lon
-121.9121. Just went out again to the observation site to estimate the
angle subtended by hills to the north - I don't have an inclinometer
but I think it's just a few degrees. I also used Google Earth to
estimate the obstruction angle; I think the northerly hills subtend 3
degrees at most as viewed from the site. According to the plot at
http://reentry.arc.nasa.gov/elevation.jpg, Stardust should have reached
a maximum elevation of 12 degrees or so as seen from our observing
site, so the fireball should have cleared the hills by roughly 9
degrees.

My leading theory at the moment is that the fireball was either dimmer
than we expected and/or faster-moving than we expected. I was expecting
something like the shuttle reentry that I once saw, which was as bright
as Venus and with an angular velocity similar to that of a jetliner a
few thousand feet up.

Has anyone seen any posted descriptions of Stardust observations from
California?

Thanks,
Tom

 




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