Clement Drolet scribbles: |>I have just observed the Mir-Atlantis couple (Mar 29th 8h50 UT) they were |>separated by about 7-8 degrees. Am I correct in assuming that STS 76 was |>the leading one? Yes, I think. I observed them during a pass this morning over the UK (culmination near the zenith at 04:13:26 UTC). They were flying in formation 2 degrees apart. At first both were equally bright (mag -1 to -2) but the trailing object dimmed somewhat during the later half of the lit portion of the pass. In binoculars it had a yellow/gold cast whilst the leading object was still pure white and much brighter - I would say that the first object was Atlantis (followed her to within 5 deg of the eastern horizon). The mean motion of each implies that Atlantis should be ahead of Mir (just): STS-76 1 23831U 96018A 96089.33361277 .00005249 11789-9 67502-4 0 210 2 23831 51.6487 164.0799 0007286 137.2796 113.1158 15.58382433 1108 Mir 1 16609U 86017A 96088.26269655 .00021115 00000-0 28498-3 0 4603 2 16609 51.6488 169.4479 0003390 115.4566 244.6777 15.57733385577394 |>BTW they passed over a bright elongated fuzzy star ;-)...an impressive |>sight! Quite nice from here too (at long last).... regards, -- Neil Clifford <n.clifford@physics.oxford.ac.uk> http://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/sat/satintro.html