[amsat-bb] Nice view of STS-123 ascent from Boston.

[Joe Fitzgerald]

I hiked out into the cold clear night at about 07:30 UTC tonight and was
rewarded with a nice view of Endeavor as she climbed uphill following her
launch at 07:28 UTC.

She was a lot brighter than I expected - easy to see under the bright
skies within Boston city limits. She gradually increased in brightness as
she passed from southwest to southeast, and then I saw rapid flashing - I
am guessing main engine cut off, external tank separation followed by
separation maneuvering.

T.S. Kelso of celestrak.com made a very nice "scenario" describing the
launch using the viewer software from his company AGI.  I used it to help
plan my observation - check it out at
http://celestrak.com/events/sts-123-launch.asp.  It is worth the gigantic
(100MB) download.  I encourage all who live on the US East Coast to go out
during the next night Shuttle launch and look.   Great fun!

-Joe KM1P