[amsat-bb] Shuttle Launch visible 3/15/09

[MM]

ISS Amateur Radio Status: March 11, 2009
By Miles Mann WF1F,

MAREX-MG News www.marexmg.org
Manned Amateur Radio Experiment

Shuttle Launch Visible Tonight:

If you live along the East Coast of the USA, you maybe able to see the Shuttle Discovery’s launch tonight at 7:43 p.m. (EDT).  People in Florida are use to seeing the Shuttle launch, however when the Shuttle is launched at Night, to the International Space Station, the engines can be seen as far north as Maine (conditions permitting).

Sunset in Boston is at 6:50 p.m. (EDT).  This means the skies will still be a little bright.

So tonight, if you have clear skies, try to find a hill that looks SouthEast.  The hill will need to be dark with few city and streetlights.  The shuttle will only be visible for a few minutes to seconds depending on your location.  The first two minutes of the launch are the brightest.  The Shuttles Solid Rocket boosters will burn for the first two minutes; this will be your best shot as seeing he Shuttle.  When the SRB stop, the liquid fuels engines will still be running and generating some visible light.  After about 8 minutes after launch the main engines will shut down and so will your light source.

Try to monitor the NASA channel.  If you can, have someone at home watch the NASA channel on TV and tell you the countdown by Cell phone.

Does anyone know if there will be a NASA rebroadcast of the launch on amateur radio HF or regular Broadcast AM, so we can monitor from our mobile HF stations while hill topping>

Here is a current link I found that gives a few more details on how to see the shuttle tonight.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090310/sc_space/nightshuttlelaunchvisiblefrommostofeastcoast






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73 Miles WF1F MAREX-MG

Until we meet again

DOSVIDANIYA Miles WF1F
/amsat-bb