Friends, No direct VW content but this would be a cool excuse to pack up and go camping out away from city lights, and with an alarm clock! I woke up early this morning and saw, at about 5:21am, the now-un-tethered satellite scoot over in the dark sky before dawn! Promissed arrival time over Fresno was 5:19 so I arrived at a convenient viewing place at 5:16 or so and scanned the sky. I saw nothing for several minutes, up to and after the 5:19 time, It wasn't quite overhead when I did spot it- a point of light which didn't vary in intensity (airplane lights blink) and moved with great speed. I put out my hand at arm's lenght and made a fist- 20 years ago in Astronomy 3xx we'd calibrated our hands as rough angular measurement tools and I remembered mine as 10 degrees wide. It took about 23 seconds for the object I think was the satellite to pass the width of my fist. As promissed, it appeared to be moving from West to East I tracked it for over a minute, until it disappeared into the clouds well above the south-eastern horizon. Its not the brightest thing up there, but it is not hard to spot, even through a light haze and in a suburban environment. I recomend it! The satellite appears from the West and goes East because (1) Launches from the Kennedy Space Flight Center are aimed from Florida out into the Atlantic Ocean for safety's sake. (2) this location/direction allow the many hundreds of mph speed of the earth's roatation near the tropics to be taken advantage of in accelerating satellites to orbital velocity (17,000mph+). The low altitude of the satellite gives it a short orbital period so it appears to move rapidly when viewed from the ground. (A geosynchronous satellite, like a TV or phone relay, appears to stand still in the sky because it is at 22,000 miles altitude and orbits in 24 hours, thus is always above the same spot. Objects highter than that would appear to be going backwards...) Times and places to look at/from: > <other parts of the US edited out> > > FRESNO, Calif. > > March 8, 5:19 a.m.; March 9, 5:33 a.m. > > LOS ANGELES > > March 7, 5:02 a.m.; March 8, 5:18 a.m.; March 9, 5:32 a.m. > > SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. > > March 7, 5:02 a.m.; March 8, 5:18 a.m.; March 9, 5:32 a.m. > > SAN DIEGO > > March 6, 4:46 a.m.; March 7, 5:02 a.m.; March 8, 5:18 a.m.; March 9, 5:32 > > a.m. > > SAN FRANCISCO > > March 9, 5:33 a.m. ------------------------------ |######\ _==_ /######| cheers! |#######\ = \/ = /#######| Bill Abbott |########\ =\/\/= /########| '70 single cab |#########\ -__- /#########| '93 Corrado |##########\ /##########| ------------------------------ | N E T S U R F N U G E N | | vanagon@lenti.med.umn.edu | ------------------------------
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