On 13-NOV-09 at 7:45:40 UTC the Rosetta spacecraft will pass just south of the Indonesian island of Java at an altitude of 2481 km during it's third and final Earth gravity assist maneuver. The best chances to observe it would be during the night from the 12th to the 13th of November where ever in the world you are. On its outgoing orbit it will have a poor phase angle and will be much more difficult to see. Rosetta will come in very fast covering the Earth-Moon distance in about 10 hours. Observers in America should be best placed for this. But you need the necessary equipment to spot something very weak. For a detailed accound of what to expect see http://www.scilogs.eu/en/blog/go-for-launch/2009-10-31/rosettas_final_earth_swingby_obesrvation Orbit elements are available directly from ESA at http://tasc.esa.int/cgi-bin/query.html?mission=ROS&querytyp=form An accurate ephemeris is also available at http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi After this flyby Rosetta will head out slighty beyond the orbit of Jupiter (the first spacecraft to do so with only solar power) and in 2014 rendezvous with a comet. Gerhard HOLTKAMP Darmstadt, Germany ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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