Greetings everyone, This is my second post to the list, apologies for not introducing myself earlier. I am a comms engineer, now working for an internet company in Japan. I have been interested in satellite observing since I found (more or less at the same time) PocketSat for the Palm OS and STS Plus for DOS, in July of this year. Previous to my new pastime, I had observed three satellites visually, twice from the Sahara dessert in 1993 (a somewhat more ideal observation location than most places I know), and once in Airlie Beach, Queensland Australia, a few years later. I knew what they were when I saw them, but never took much interest untilrecently. Since then, with the help of PocketSat, STSPlus, Heavens Above and ELE's from Celestrak, I have predicted and observed numerous satellites and Ir flares. However, due to poor conditions here and timing and whatnot, I had to wait until tonight, about 7pm (10am UCT), until I observed first the ISS, then about a minute and a half later and perhaps a few (?) degrees lower and a bit brighter, the space shuttle Discovery. WOW!! According to the NASA site, docking will occur at around 0245 am local time here, 1745 UCT, which means that within around six hours or so the shuttle will have caught up with the ISS, which seems quite fast to me. Is it? I had quite fancied seeing them a bit closer together. I also get shuttle ELE's from David Ransom's list, and was wondering how quickly they are updated, since from my original post it seems clear that shuttle does a lot of wondering about during a typical mission - as does whatever it is attached to at the time! The same for Heavens Above and Celestrak. If I get the latest set are my predictions going to be OK? And who has the *very* latest sets? In any case, my ongoing thanks to the members of the list, each of whom's postings only add to my enjoyment of visual satellite observation. Marc Bradshaw 37.028N 138.254E 75M AMSL P.S. I must have looked quite a sight tonight standing in our local park with my scuba mask on. I squashed my specs (again) yesterday, and my scuba mask is the only thing apart from my sunglasses with prescription lenses! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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