I was able to observe the Titan II/Coriolis launch from Vandenberg this morning from my front porch in Manhattan Beach in nautical twilight. As the rocket cleared my horizon, in 15x45 binoculars it looked like a dim version of a Delta II launch. But then first stage separation was a very bright burst of orange, followed by the emergence of an expanding cloud of many tens of debris fragments surrounding the first stage, which was embedded in a smaller cloud of fuel that warpped around the stage as it continued to ascend. A minute later, payload fairing separation from the second stage was clearly seen, with the tumbling fairings forming an equilateral triangle varying from mag 1 to 3. Second stage was at this point mag 1 and the booster and debris cloud mag 2 to 3, with the debris cloud surrounding the first stage about 5 degrees in extent. This procession slowly dimmed until I lost the objects behind my neighbors' house after about 5 minutes. Very glad to have finally seen a Titan II launch from VAFB, it was a very different visual experience from the usual Delta or Minuteman launch. Bradley P. Allen N 33.881 W 118.388 42 meters ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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
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