Hi Patrick, I'm figuring even though the chance is so small, it is so easy and nice just to stand outside and watch the sky for a short period of time, I might as well be looking while these passes happen. Could you help me interpret the table, are these Zulu times, or local time? Do the angle measurements indicate it would appear, if visible, to be moving from the western horizon to the eastern horizon? Thanks! Ian On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 4:19 PM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:
With NASA predicting UARS will reenter between the 22nd and 24th I checked and found that during that time UARS will make several passes over Utah:
22 Sep 05:41:27 10 WNW 05:42:57 20 SW 05:44:23 10 S 22 Sep 21:33:45 10 SW 21:35:40 55 NW 21:37:37 10 NE 23 Sep 05:15:50 10 WNW 05:17:18 21 SW 05:18:45 10 S 23 Sep 21:06:40 10 SW 21:08:35 67 NW 21:10:33 10 NE 24 Sep 04:48:03 10 WNW 04:49:36 24 SW 04:51:04 10 S 24 Sep 20:37:28 10 SW 20:39:23 85 SW 20:41:22 10 NE
Only the first part of the last pass on the 24th would be visible under normal conditions (ie UARS in daylight and us in darkness) but it would be plainly visible during any of those passes should it decide to deorbit over Utah.
Chances of that, of course, are VERY small. Odds are it will come down over some vast expanse of ocean or uninhabited wilderness.
But we can always hope... :)
patrick _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php