I dragged myself outside at about 2AM here in Tucson and watched Columbia during it's re-entry last night. It appeared starting at about 2:11 AM and was visible for less than 3 minutes. I'd seen the shuttle before from here and it looked similar, though the shuttle itself was a bit more orange in color than I remembered it with the unaided eye. With binocs, it appeared pink/orange/blue in color. I watched the trail for a few minutes after the shuttle had disappeared below my horizon as it spread and started to distort into a wavey shape. It's been a while since our last re-entry sighting opportunity here in Tucson. Those high inclination ISS orbits just don't give you good re-entry ground tracks anywhere near the SW USA. I was back in bed by 2:22 when I looked at my watch and got a chuckle before nodding off about how Columbia was about 10 minutes from the runway still - how "slow" it was in getting to Florida.... :-))) Jim. Jim Scotti Lunar & Planetary Laboratory jscotti@pirl.lpl.arizona.edu University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 USA http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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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