Re: GLobalstar 2 spotted

Ron Lee (ronlee@pcisys.net)
Fri, 24 Apr 1998 20:52:11 -0600

You sure know how to make a guy feel bad.  :)  Not only did you spot it before
me but you very likely saw the SECO 4 depletion burn that should have 
occurred about 00:33:34 UT.   That must have been a great thing to see.
I have wanted to see such an event for many years but just have been in 
the right place at the right time.  Congratulations!!!!

Ron Lee

At 09:13 PM 4/24/98 -0400, you wrote:
>
>We just spotted the globalstar sat at 00:34:00 UTC. in late nautical
>twilight here in the Northeast US. Being so light we didnt expect to see
>much as the stars in Auriga were just coming into view. As the time came
>for the sat to pass between Theta and Beta Auriga a large plume of vapor
>became visible. The plume streched easily 1/2 of the distance between these
>two stars and took on the shape of a "large mushroom" as my wife descibes
>it. A second smaller plume which lasted for about 15 seconds became
>visible. Both of these were naked eye visible although absolutely
>spectacular in the 7x50's. I then was able to track the sat across the
>zenith and to the NE under Ursa Major. I wasnt able to see any of the 4
>payload objects but heard on the launch coverage that they were being
>released some minutes earlier. What a truly spectacular sight!!
>
>Elsets used were from the post from Ron Lee earlier today:
>
>Globalstar, 24 Apr 98, 22:38:34 UT
>1 91234U 980xxA   98115.01050429 -.00000116  00000-0  00000+0 0    13
>2 91234  52.0033  89.0530 0009877 258.4010 101.5767 13.02667966    03
>
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------
>Bud Smith                 email: budsmith@ct1.nai.net
>Newtown, Connecticut USA
>lat. 41.2539N             lon. 73.2120W      110m ASL
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>
>