[Atmob-discuss] Potential for best shuttle launch visibility from Massachusetts in 16 years

[George Roberts]

Let's hope it is extra clear to the south east.

This will be just as good from Boston area as NYC.  Read on.

- George Roberts
http://gr5.org

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Skywayinc at aol.com>
To: <SeeSat-L at satobs.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007 1:23 AM
Subject: Visibility of Shuttle Orbiter & External Tank on Thursday


> On Friday, NASA managers cleared the shuttle Atlantis and its crew for
> blastoff Dec. 6 to the International Space Station (STS-122).
>
> Atlantis is scheduled to lift off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space 
> Center
> at 4:31:44 p.m. EST next Thursday, roughly the moment when Earth's 
> rotation
> carries the launch pad into the plane of the orbit of the ISS.
>
> As I noted a few weeks ago, the stage is now set for a most 
> interesting
> scenario for observers in the NYC Area because the time of liftoff 
> comes just
> five minutes after local sunset.
>
> There is a precedent dating back more than 16-years ago:
>
> Back on September 12, 1991, STS-48 was launched at 7:11 p.m.  That was 
> only
> one-minute after local sunset for NYC.  And yet, I still consider that 
> as the
> best Shuttle launch I've ever seen from the NY area because the 
> Shuttle
> orbiter and its orange external fuel tank were illuminated by sunlight 
> as it
> moved parallel to the US East Coast.  This made the Shuttle appear 
> incredibly
> bright . . . from Levittown, Long Island (where I was living back 
> then) I
> estimated the total magnitude of the "stack" (orbiter & external 
> tank) at -5 -- 
> brighter than the planet Venus!
>
> Moreover . . . instead of flickering out into invisibility at MECO 
> (main
> engine cutoff ~ 8.4 minutes after liftoff), what was observed was a 
> "puff" of
> vapor emanating from the Shuttle.  Thereafter, the orbiter continued 
> to be
> visible as it rapidly sailed off toward the northeast.  Moreover, 
> through 7  x 35
> binoculars, I could actually see the separation of the whitish orbiter 
> from
> the dull orange external tank, which occurs at an altitude of about 
> 73-miles
> about 400 miles southeast of NYC.  This was indeed a rare and 
> spectacular
> sight.
>
> I have been waiting all these years since for another shuttle launch 
> that
> similarly would coincide with a time just after local sunset and it 
> now appears
> that next Thursday (weather conditions permitting, of course) another
> opportunity will finally come my way.
>
> Interestingly, at Cape Canaveral, the launch occurs 54-minutes before 
> local
> sunset in a bright daytime sky.  But as Atlantis gradually plods
> northeastward, paralleling the southeast and middle Atlantic 
> coastline, it will  move
> toward the Earth's terminator line, separating daylight from darkness.
>
> From the NYC area, the Shuttle will probably first become visible very 
> low
> above the southern horizon about 7 to 8 minutes after liftoff (4:38 to 
> 4:39
> p.m.  EST).  It then will move rapidly over to the south-southeast, 
> where at MECO
> (4:40.1 p.m.) it will reach a maximum altitude of 8.5-degrees above 
> the
> horizon.
>
> It will then race to the east-southeast where both orbiter and the 
> external
> tank should disappear about a minute or so later.
>
> This display will also be visible from southern New England and might 
> even
> be observable from locations to the south of NYC, even from where the 
> Sun will
> still be just above the southwestern horizon (such as Ocean City, 
> Maryland).
>
>
> -- joe rao
>
>