In a message dated 11/4/2007 2:03:19 PM Eastern Standard Time, bridges_paul@yahoo.com writes: I see the STS undock time is 5:32 EST. I have a superb horizon-zenith-horizon pass in my area (California) at 8:56 EST according to H.A.. If those times remain correct, is ~20 minutes enough time to show a visible separation of STS/ISS to the human eye? I just don't know how fast/far they move apart after separation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------- I'm not exactly sure what you mean here, since you are in California so your local time is Pacific not Eastern time. The Shuttle/ISS duo will make three southwest-to-northeast passes over North America on Monday morning. You will probably be under the third pass, which will come about three hours after undocking. Last December, there was a situation where the Shuttle and ISS undocked shortly before a series of passes began over North America. Folks here in the east needed binoculars to clearly see the separation, but they were a little farther apart for the Central States and by the time they were passing over the Western US, the pair could be seen as two distinct objects with the naked eye. In tomorrow morning's case, the final Seperation burn occurs, at 7:18 am EST ( 12:18 UTC ). That's 4:18 a.m. PST . . . the vehicles will be steadily separating thereafter, so I suspect that you'll be able to see both objects without optical aid . . . probably separated by a degree or less. Ultimately, the gap between the two will increase to about 26 miles/42 kilometers, which means that on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, they should appear separated by about 18 to 20 degrees. -- joe rao ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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