Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site ihuxl.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!dual!qantel!ihnp4!ihuxl!dcn
From: dcn@ihuxl.UUCP (Dave Newkirk)
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Shuttle Observed on 8/2/85 in Chicago
Message-ID: <1604@ihuxl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-Aug-85 10:00:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihuxl.1604
Posted: Wed Aug  7 10:00:58 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Aug-85 03:34:48 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 16

At 9:37 pm on August 2, I watched the shuttle pass overhead from my
backyard in suburban Warrenville.  It appeared in the northwest,
moving toward the southeast.  When I first saw it, it looked like
a comet (!), with a bright head and a faint tail/contrail behind it.
As it moved overhead, the tail shortened to a fuzzy area around the
shuttle, and then moved ahead of it as it passed the zenith.  Then
it suddenly faded away, leaving a dim point where the shuttle was.

At first I thought it was a trail left in the upper atmosphere, but
then when the trail shortened, I changed my theory to a reflection
of sunlight off the wings or a byproduct of one of the experiment
packages.  Since it seems to have faded as it moved in to the Earth's
shadow, I concluded that it must have been reflected sunlight.  It
sure was bright!
-- 
				Dave Newkirk, ihnp4!ihuxl!dcn