[amsat-bb] Starshine,STS-96 and ISS.

[TKVF99C@xxxxxxxxxxx (MR STEPHEN G THOMPSON)]

Here in central North Carolina we had a beautiful
view of ISS, Shuttle and Starshine.  All three
were visible within a 20 degree field of view
Saturday morning at 08:23z.  I hope some of you 
saw the pass.  Starshine had just been deployed
62 minutes before and does not appear to be an
easy target to spot.  It was visible leading the 
shuttle by just a thumbnail width at arms length 
and flashed at no regular interval and only as 
bright as the dimmest stars in the Big Dipper and 
that was while using my field glasses.  So it looks
to me like the kiddoes are going to have their
work cut out for them spotting Starshine.  To 
answer some ones question I saw here tonight on
why the students couldnt use Mir,Shuttle or ISS
sightings for their studies.  The answer is, Starshine
produces uniform drag over it's structure due to its
spherical shape offering a greater degree of 
accuracy in the calculation of those things that are
expected to influence its orbit.  That's how it was
explained on NASA TV just before Starshine's 
deploy.  Happy bird watchin.  :)
  
73 de Steve
K5PK@amsat.org  
  
  
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