snowdog@athena.mit.edu (Richard the Nerd) (12/04/88)
I saw Atlantis make a pass over here at Cambridge at 17:12 EST. The payload satellite was about 3 seconds directly ahead of Atlantis, flying in formation. (This puts it about 20 km ahead in real space.) It was about 1 - 2 magnitudes fainter and distinctly red in color (gold foil?). Very interesting. The elements I posted earlier on today predicted a pass 7 minutes and 50 seconds later. Here are some improved elements: Object: STS-27 Epoch: 88337.66528 ndot/2: 0.0001 n2dot/6: 0.0 bstar: 0.3e-3 Inclination: 57.0 deg RA of node: 189.1 deg Eccentricity: 0.0 Arg. Perigee: 0.0 Mean Anomaly: 0.0 Mean Motion: 15.3817 Rev: 1 These should be very close, within a few seconds for tonight, and maybe a few minutes tomorrow. -Rich