A very special thanks to Mike McCants for alerting SeeSat-ers like me to the fuel dump of the Centaur transfer stage for the Milstar 5 satellite deployment. I was able to easily see the fuel dump from Campbell, California (near San Jose). The weather was perfectly clear (but cold!) I set up an image intensified video camera and caught the very first image of the "comet" at precisely 7h30m U.T. -- EXACTLY 7 hours after launch per Mike's previous post. The fuel dump expanded slowly, forming a definite comet-like cloud that reached about 1/2 degree wide at best about 10 minutes later. It was never spectacular naked-eye, but could easily be seen. I first spotted it naked-eye a minute or so after the camera dutifully recorded the exact time of the outburst. The first image on the video at 7h30m U.T. January 16th from my location at N37.262 W121.977 was at RA 9h10.6m DEC -6.36 degrees, which was also at Altitude 37.35, Azimuth 139.1. I had used Matson's SKYMAP to determine the on-station location of DBS-2, close to the 95-West location Mike predicted to pre-aim the video camera. I started it running at 6h55m U.T. using a 50mm lens giving about a 30-degree field of view. After acquiring the "comet", I switched to a 400m lens, giving about a 4 degree field of view. The view was spectacular! The camera then was able to pick up the satellite (or the Centaur) at the end-point of the comet cloud. VERY interesting to say the least! I stopped recording at 7h54m U.T. as the cloud had faded considerably, but was still visible in 7x50 binoculars and still easily visible on the video. I currently do not have a place to post pictures, but if anyone is interested in some frame-grabs of the video I took, I'd be happy to send one as an E-mail attachment. Requests can be sent to rickbaldridge@msn.com. Thanks again, Mike! RICK BALDRIDGE ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael McCants" <mmccants@jump.net> To: <SeeSat-L@satobs.org> Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2002 2:30 PM Subject: Milstar 5 Titan 4/Centaur Launch > The countdown for the launch of a Titan 4/Centaur with the > Milstar 5 payload is continuing at Cape Canaveral. > > http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/titan4_preview_020115.html > > http://lmms.external.lmco.com/about/latest_news.html > > The launch is now scheduled for 7:30PM EST. > > The deployment of the Milstar into near-geosync orbit will > take place about 7 hours after launch. After payload separation, > the Centaur should vent its excess fuel and oxidizer. This could > create a "comet" about 22000 miles over the equator near longitude > 95 west. > > Mike McCants ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Jan 16 2002 - 03:37:46 EST