A little off-topic, since this is not Guide-related, but I am
curious to know how far north along the U.S. Atlantic coast
that people were able to see the shuttle launch.

A friend and I went to a semi-dark sky site about 45 minutes
drive out of Jacksonville, Florida. It has a very good southern
and eastern horizon as it overlooks a large reservoir. We
enjoyed looking at the planets (GRS was very nicely positioned
during the time) and a few deep sky objects before the
scheduled launch time.

About 15 minutes prior to launch, I set up a low-light video
camera (Supercircuits PC23C) and viewed the output and
recorded the video and sound using a Sony Hi-8 camcorder
with A/V inputs and built-in monitor.

Unfortunately, shuttle launches have become so common-
place that none of the radio stations carry them, so we
were left wondering if the launch were still "go" or if there
was a last-minute mechanical glitch.

At about 10:06 p.m. EST (-5 UTC), the southeastern
horizon suddenly took on the glow of dawn and I started
recording. When the shuttle came over the horizon a
few seconds later, it was so bright on the monitor that
I had to stop down the lens to be able to image the
growing exhaust trail. We had a nice view of separation
and I was able to open up my lens and record the
shuttle among the fainter stars. A short time later, I
noted a zip of light on the monitor as I was tracking
the shuttle and told my partner that I thought I had
recorded a meteor.

I easily followed the shuttle until it approached the
tree line in the northeast and **believe** I saw
main engine cutoff before it reached the treeline.
My partner and I are in a little disagreement about
this, but I have followed bright satellites going into
trees before and always there is an opportunity to
see the satellite between the branches for a second
or two before it completely disappears. This
disappearance was quite sudden, like a star being
occulted by the Moon, and I would bet that it was
MECO. It would certainly have been nice to have
been able to have the audio from NASA Select
while I was observing it to be sure.

Upon checking the video tape, I did, indeed, catch
a fast meteor in the field (my first ever with the
low-light video). I have not determined my limiting
magnitude on the video tape but I believe it is
between 7.5 and 8, so there were plenty of background
stars the whole length of the pass.

While we in northeast Florida were favored with good
location and good weather for the launch, there do
not appear to be any really good passes of the ISS
for the duration of the mission. I am curious to see
how the new array will add to the brightness of the
station. I would say that it is still somewhat dimmer
than Mir but a good bit brighter than the HST. Any
other opinions on that?

Clear skies.

Roger in Jacksonville, Florida.

---------------
Roger Curry
Jacksonville, Florida
Visit the NEFAS Web Site at www.nefas.org
Roger's FTP site: ftp://rcurry.dns2go.com