The shuttle was launched this morning 4:27:24 EST (times estimated from CHU). After watching take off on CNN, we went out on our back deck (where I had shoveled off 3" of unexpected snow). Judy spotted a flame rising in the south at 4:34:45. The shuttle traveled across the SE as a large point of light much brighter than Venus, about 15 deg high. In binoculars, the cone shaped exhaust was easily visible. The lower part, at an angle \ was much brighter than the faint upper portion / 4:36:10 Flames started pulsing off and on till 4:37:00 when flames went off and shuttle went behind a tree. It was not visible again after that. Using these pre-launch predictions, I looked for the shuttle on its next pass. 40.283 74.233 129. JAY RESPLER 1950 14.0 3 F F T T F *** 1997 Jan 12 Sun morning *** Times are AM EST *** 1744 626 H M S Tim Azi ElC Dir Mag Dys F Hgt Shd Rng R A Dec RCS Name 6 8 57 .0 323 25 85 19.9 0 6 212 15 461 634 55.5 STS-81 At 6:10, something came by at mag 5 1/2. This is much fainter than I expected, but I didn't find anything else that this might be. I'll have to wait for actual current elements to see if it could have been STS. However, when Mir came by, it was much brighter than predicted, about as bright as Venus! *** 1997 Jan 12 Sun morning *** Times are AM EST *** 1744 626 H M S Tim Azi ElC Dir Mag Dys F Hgt Shd Rng R A Dec RCS Name 6 15 26 .0 321 26 84 .4 2 5 249 64 517 653 54.9 .Mir As long as I was up, I waited for Bion Rk. This came by as bright as Vega. *** 1997 Jan 12 Sun morning *** Times are AM EST *** 1744 626 H M S Tim Azi ElC Dir Mag Dys F Hgt Shd Rng R A Dec RCS Name 6 25 44 .2 298 26 85 19.0 2 8 149 29 317 812 37.5 BION 11 R All-in-all, a nice morning. Jay Respler -- Details of how to get on the Satellite Observer Mail List, satellite elements, prediction programs and other satellite information, at the Visual Satellite Observers Home Page: http://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/sat/satintro.html -- JRespler@InJersey.com Satellite Tracker * Early Typewriter Collector Freehold, New Jersey