I have seen, photographed and video taped four Shuttle re-entries over California, starting with STS-63. A photo of the re-entry of STS-73 is posted at: http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/rickbaldridge/vwp?.dir=/Astronomy+Stuff&.src=ph&. dnm=STS-73+Columbia+Reentry.jpg&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/bc/r ickbaldridge/lst%3f%26.dir=/Astronomy%2bStuff%26.src=ph%26.view=t (If you have trouble with this long link, go to http://photos.yahoo.com/rickbaldridge and click on "Astronomy Stuff" album, and then the second picture. The Yahoo page was down a few days ago but is working again.) Believe me, NONE of them show even the slightest indication of brightenings in the trail or small pieces coming off. Yesterday was a bad day for me (and all of us.) I video-taped the re-entry for Mt. Hamilton, CA and took two photos. Naked-eye, we didn't notice anything too unusual, but I was spending most of my time looking through the video camera viewfinder. We thought we had just seen another spectacular NORMAL re-entry. Only an hour later when I got home did I learn of the tragedy that occurred minutes after we saw the Shuttle go by. When I looked at my video, there were very fain but definite pieces coming off, with the first piece seen on the video at 5:53:45am PST +/- 1 second. A had made a time-hack as I always do to obtain timings, and this hack was synchronized to WWV. As far as I know at this time, I was the furthest west observer on the re-entry track to get a video. NASA has been given a copy of the tape. They may want the master of course to analyze further. I also took two still photos, one through a 16mm lens that shows the entire visible trace of the Shuttle and BOTH photos show definite brightenings in the trail that corresponde to brightenings the video shows. Again, I have NEVER seen this activity before STS-107. The photos will be scanned today and posted, after I get a copy to NASA. Bless the families and friends of the Columbia Crew. Rick Baldridge Campbell, CA ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Anderman" <davida@cwo.com> To: <SeeSat-L@satobs.org> Sent: Saturday, February 01, 2003 10:05 PM Subject: Re: Shuttle Reentry Observations > > Before reading too much into these observations of the Shuttle re- > entry over California, it would be useful to have imagery of prior > re- > entries as a reference. Perhaps all of these prior images will also > show sparks over California. > > DWA > ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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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