Last night I posted a "no-show" statement for the Shuttle from my site in Stade near Hamburg, Germany, and wondered why I did not see it 22 min after launch despite clear skies. With one of the first (or was it the first after orbit insertion?) TLEs from Alan Pickup=B4s site .... 98034A 327 x 239 km 1 25356U 98034A 98153.95302259 .00002109 11260-4 10115-4 0 18 2 25356 51.6532 118.8872 0065835 0.7094 200.3554 15.96876098 05 ... and with the help of Trakstar, I came up with the following groundtrack at around shadow entry: 1998 Jun 02 22:28:00 49=F833'13" N 3=F827'38" E 298.856 =20 1998 Jun 02 22:28:01 49=F832'00" N 3=F833'13" E 298.901 =20 1998 Jun 02 22:28:02 49=F830'48" N 3=F838'48" E 298.946 =20 1998 Jun 02 22:28:03 49=F829'35" N 3=F844'22" E 298.991 =20 1998 Jun 02 22:28:04 49=F828'21" N 3=F849'56" E 299.035 =20 1998 Jun 02 22:28:05 49=F827'08" N 3=F855'30" E 299.080 =20 1998 Jun 02 22:28:06 49=F825'54" N 4=F801'04" E 299.125 ECL 1998 Jun 02 22:28:07 49=F824'40" N 4=F806'37" E 299.170 ECL 1998 Jun 02 22:28:08 49=F823'25" N 4=F812'10" E 299.214 ECL 1998 Jun 02 22:28:09 49=F822'11" N 4=F817'42" E 299.259 ECL 1998 Jun 02 22:28:10 49=F820'56" N 4=F823'15" E 299.303 ECL=20 So shadow entry occured over a location in Northern France, about 2/3 the way from Paris to the Belgian border. Seen from my site this must have been near azimut 222 deg, elevation 23 deg, and so I should have observed it just before shadow entry, if the neighbour=B4s roof hadn=B4t unfortunately blocked the final maybe 2 or 3 degrees of the visible path from the viewpoint on my balcony. The fate of a satellite observer - well, better luck next time!=20 With clear skies over most parts of France and the Southern parts of the UK, the Shuttle must have been a spectacular sight from more favorable locations than mine. Steve Daniels saw it from SW England (see his post). But I am curious who else of you European observers was succesfull with it? Alex ----------------------------------------------------- Alexander Seidel N 53.5932 E 9.4683 6m asl Dankersstrasse 22 --------------------------- D-21680 Stade, Germany Fon/Fax (+49) 4141 68772 -----------------------------------------------------