STS-86 Water dump...

Jim Scotti (jscotti@LPL.Arizona.EDU)
Sun, 5 Oct 1997 20:30:08 -0700 (MST)

A friend of mine reported observing a satellite with a tail about a degree
long this evening at about 01:50-01:58 UT (Oct 6) from Tucson Arizona
which I identified as Atlantis, presumably just after a water dump.  I
missed it by about 3 or 4 minutes (DRAT!), looking for some other
satellites just after that.  I did catch a low pass of Mir at about 02:09
UT as it passed east (in direction, west on the sky) of Ursa Major, under
Polaris and behind the 4-meter Mayall Telescope on Kitt Peak (I was on the
Spacewatch dome at the time).  And while I've got you all on the line, I
also managed to spot 20625 Cosmos 2082 R/B, 21610 ERS-1 R/B, 21987 EUVE
(at about magnitude 3.5), 11080 Nimbus 7 (which I noticed just south of
beta Peg at magnitude about 3.0 and faded rapidly to invisible over the
next 60 seconds or so), and 19531 NOAA 11 (magnitude 7-8 in binocs). 

Jim.

Jim Scotti                              
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory         jscotti@lpl.arizona.edu 
University of Arizona                520/621-2717 
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA                 http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/