As Kurt is already aware, I was the one how made the suggestion to NASA's Paul Tompkins about sighting the venting of surplus gas from the LCROSS Centaur. Unfortunately, it appears from his message that North Americans will not be able to make a sighting of the illuminated cloud. :( A moot point locally here in the NYC area as we are being drenched by heavy rain. Good luck to prospective viewers in Australia and Southeast Asia! -- joe rao ------------------------------------------------------------------- In a message dated 6/18/2009 1:48:03 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, canopus56@yahoo.com writes: Source: http://wiki.nasa.gov/cm/blog/lcrossfdblog LCROSS Flight Director Paul D. Tompkins Posted on Jun 18, 2009 02:21:32 AM Paul.D Tompkins ============================= <snip> 3. Finally, one of my readers suggested a really great idea. He wanted to know if our Centaur would be venting gas as part of its sequence. The reason he asked is that under the right lighting conditions, the sunlight high above Earth can actually illuminate the vented gases, making them visible from the ground. He said he was able to observe this effect as a kid right after the Apollo 14 launch. Cool! So, I've tracked this down, and our Navigation team has provided some data for those of you with enough experience might be able to use to predict LCROSS's early-mission trajectory. Here is the information and some figures (attached). Best for our friends in the Southeast...and by that I mean Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand...enjoy...and thank you for such a great idea! From our extended Navigation team: **************Dell Days of Deals! June 15-24 - A New Deal Everyday! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1222677718x1201465083/aol?redir=http:%2F%2F ad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B215692163%3B38015526%3Be) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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