In a message dated Fri, 3 May 2002 10:23:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Daniel Deak <dan.deak@sympatico.ca> writes: >"Ted A. Nichols II" wrote: >> >> Greetings all, >> >> I'm looking for a confirmation of a possible fuel dump performed by the >> Ariane 4 Rocket launching Spot 5. > >From what I saw it sure was. The C-shaped nebula grew quite fast around the >stage, up to 4 degrees in diameter. It remained in the vicinity of the stage. A >few moments later, we could distinguish two objects surrounded by this cloud. I believe that it was a fuel dump. At my location there was a moderate haze in the east and NE. I observed absolutely nothing during the powered part of the ascent. I acquired the sunlit rocket at 01:50:58 UTC, 4 May. About 2 seconds later it passed about .1 deg over one of the brighter stars of Hercules (probably delta, maybe epsilon in the ENE elevation about 25 deg). At about 01:51:30 I noticed that it brightened and there was a bright haze surrounding it - which illuminated the haze in the atmosphere. The haze (from the fuel dump) was noticeable for about a minute. I could not resolve the SPOT 5 payload. With clear, dark skies that may have been possible. It disappeared from view at 01:57:46 UTC. Cheers, Don Gardner 39.1799 N, 76.8406 W, 100m ASL http://hometown.aol.com/mir16609/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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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