Hello.I just went out to get firewood. dark starry sky and I saw the following: 21:15 local time ( 19:15 GMT ) to 21:20 local time directly over my house near Toulouse, france. lat43.97long2.52. In a very clear sky, the usual satellite seen going overhead heading due north amongst the stars. This one very different. Usual apparent speed, like the space station I'd say but followed, say 5DEG later by a very visible spearhead shaped cloud, about 1 or so deg wide. Then I noticed that it had a huge ring around it. like the angle a rainbow subtends at the eye. Like you sometines see around a full moon but many times larger in angular terms. This bright, massive circle tracking the speed of the dot [+ it's cloud] and remaining visible after the dot, before my eyes, let out another cloud of gas and slowly faded to a cloud itself. The final view I had was as the ring 'set' over the northern horizon which for me is a valley wall, about 15DEG elevation. Spectacular. Did I see a satellite die, discuss. Jonathan
You may have seen the AV-017 Centaur disposal burn, or the propellant blowdown.... The Centaur stage was supposed to coast until about three hours after liftoff before performing a final disposal burn, meant to propel it into solar orbit....
Wow--a 220-second disposal burn?! Is this a standard technique? It just seems to be such a colossal waste of delta-V. Couldn't you dispose of the stage in the ocean at a much lower delta-V?
Quote from: edkyle99 on 10/19/2009 02:45 amYou may have seen the AV-017 Centaur disposal burn, or the propellant blowdown.... The Centaur stage was supposed to coast until about three hours after liftoff before performing a final disposal burn, meant to propel it into solar orbit....Wow--a 220-second disposal burn?! Is this a standard technique? It just seems to be such a colossal waste of delta-V. Couldn't you dispose of the stage in the ocean at a much lower delta-V?
Re the sighting: did it look similar to this? http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=19&month=10&year=2009
Do people think that their launches will all follow a similar trajectory and therefore, I live in a good place to see this again?I'll take snaps next time