Satgen325   Watching STS/MIR dock   by GM4IHJ                 17th June 95

At this time there is still some doubt about when this experiment will
take place. As this is being written ,launch of the Shuttle STS71 will not
be before 24 June with docking approx 4 days later on or about 28/29th. 
However problems preparing Mir may delay things into July.

What you the terrestrial viewer will need to see this event is :-
a.  A relatively CLEAR STARLIT NIGHT SKY over your station
b.  Shuttle/Mir at 400 kms altitude still seeing the Sun and therefore
    shining by reflected sunlight.
c.  Shuttle/Mir passing near your station at an elevation greater than 
    10 degrees , ie clear of ground haze and smog, and generally cloudless

Given these conditions the two vehicles should be as bright as a star of
magnitude -1, ie just a little less bright than the Dog star SIRIUS.

But not all locations will have these characteristics. At GM4IHJ and other
stations above latitude 56N, this is near mid summer , with less than four
hours of half darkness . So the succession of 6 Mir orbits past high
latitude stations in the time frame roughly 1400 to 2300 local Sun time (
add 1 hour if you are on Summer/Daylight Saving time), go past before the
sky is really dark ,excepting for the last pass around 2230 or so which is
low elevation in the southwest ie in ground haze for northern stations.

Mid latitude northern hemisphere stations have an earlier sunset so they
may be able to view STS/MIr on orbits just AFTER SUNSET, passing at approx
2000 and 2130 local Sun time. But stations near the Equator and in the
Southern hemisphere may not be so lucky. Even Buenos Aires and Melbourne
at about latitude 38 S have only very poor low elevation PRE DAWN passes,
but stations further south such as Dunedin in New Zealand or Port Stanley
in the Falkland Islands should have good views of the STS/Mir combination
if their pre dawn sky is cloud free.

NASA reports about this flight seem to be quoting Shuttle orbit vectors
rather than Keplerian elements, but no one need really worry about this.
All you have to do is get reasonable Mir Keplerian elements into your
computer and use that for tracking. Remembering the 1986 pass of Mir by
Salyut 7, the best views were when the two vehicles were slightly apart ,
looking like two bright stars flying in formation. So catching them before
they dock may give some spectacular viewing, perhaps watching shuttle
catch up on Mir or vice versa. This is a SAREX mission, so Amateur radio 
QSOs should be possible, particularly for schools via scheduled contacts. 

So lets hope all goes well with this historic mission. The voice phrase
that one should listen for on 143.625 FM Mirs downlink is " KNAPA NORMALA"
= Coupling (docking ) OK , as Shuttle firmly latches onto Mir.