I thought this might interest our SeeSat readers as well, a report from my colleague Joe Montani who watched the launch from Tucson. I may have seen the reddish object as well - it looked much like a military flare that I occasionally see in the western/northwestern sky from here (over the Goldwater Gunnery Range). What I saw lasted only a few seconds and appeared about a minute before the large plume (L shaped is a good description which Joe provides below for that plume). I dismissed it at the time as unrelated since it was so far south of the usual direction of Vandenberg launches as they first appear here on Kitt Peak. Later, however, with my binoculars, I looked in that area and saw a zig-zag shaped trail - again, I don't know if it was related to the launch. I don't know if what I saw was going up or down (if it was the same thing, Joe thought it was going up), so I wondered if it might be part of the rocket re-entering the atmosphere? One other thought - the plume appeared very suddenly and was already several degrees across as it appeared. Was the plume rising into sunlight or was it some sort of flourescent phenomenon making it appear? I'm imagining it is a plume rising relatively unconstrained by any atmosphere and perhaps later falling back down onto the top of the atmosphere after following a ballistic trajectory. I have to echo Joe's sentiment of thanking those who made the list aware of the impending launch - without such notices, we would be unprepared to go out and look. 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/ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 20:36:16 -0700 (MST) From: Joe Montani <jmontani@lpl.arizona.edu> To: jscotti@lpl.arizona.edu Subject: JAWSAT spectacular!! Dear Jim, Thank you very much for the information about the JAWSAT launch time tonight. I went out a few minutes before the appointed time, to view from the flat roof of my house, with clear Western horizon in mid-Tucson to the Tucson mountains about 8-10 miles west of me. Wind was strong from the west, and quite humid, so transparency was not as good as earlier in the day, before cumulus clouds near sunset covered the sky. Although the cumulus evaporated, the humidity climbed, and transparency suffered. Well... about 5 degrees altitude and about 280 deg AZ, I began to see a red, rising point of light about the color of Mars (which was conveniently available for comparison at about AZ 255), and rapidly became brighter than Mars. That was about 8:04 or 8:05 MST. The red accelerating point disappeared without ceremony (I used no optical aid, even though I was at home and have lots of it of various kinds available, nor did I bring a camera to the roof). After another minute, an "L"-shaped cloud began to form, of ghostly white color. The extensions of the "L" stretched due North and due East, and the cloud moved south. It did not seem that any point of light or anthing else was at the apex or intesection of the arms of the "L". Was it just a moving plasma cloud? Or had a second stage ignited and begun to leave such a "trail?" The "L" grew in size and in the thickness of its arms, until it became larger in length of its arms than the sides of the Great Square of Pegasus (also conveniently in the sky for comparison, at about AZ 280 deg). Finally, the "L" became so large that its surface brightness dimmed so much that I could no longer see it. By that time, it had passed south of Mars. The time I "quit" was 8:12 PM MST, and I saw no more manifestations of the launch. I will try to see the satellites, and can probably use the TLE set posted before launch, since the launch seemed to be perfectly on-time. What a treat! Thanks again, Jim. I'm sure you saw MORE in the darks dark skies of Kitt Peak, and I hope it was clear. --Joe Montani ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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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