saw tether

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Skies finally cleared to give me my first view of the Tether Satellite. Along
with that, we got record setting low temperatures of 5-10 deg F.
This is really a strange sight!

Using these elements
TSS
1 23805U 96012B   96067.83333333  .00014770  92345-9  80562-4 0   271
2 23805  28.4567 184.6479 0053413 306.1092 103.2649 15.76502129  2216

QUICKSAT gave this prediction:
  40.283  74.233  129.    JAY RESPLER           1950 11.0  4 F F T T T
***  1996 Mar   9  Sat morning  *** Times are AM eSt ***  1844  531
 H  M  S Tim Azi ElC Dir  Mag Dys F  Hgt Shd  Rng  R A  Dec RCS  Name
 5  4 56  .0 175  7  272 23.6   2 3  224  89  933 1641-42.2      TSS
 5  4 23                  5.8      <---- OBSERVED time and mag.

The ball itself was not seen.  Tether is about 1 1/4 deg long.
Straight, with no kinks.  Looked like  \  at 165 deg angle.

To see this at 7 deg elevation, I observed from upstairs window which I then
closed to wait for shuttle due in 30 minutes.  When I returned, the !@#$%^&
window latch was frozen shut, so I couldn't get the window open, and missed my
only chance to see this shuttle flight.  Well, at least I saw TSS.

JRespler@InJersey.com
Jay.Respler@bytewise.org
Freehold, New Jersey



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