[Launch Alert] More on Startdust

[Brian Webb]

                             LAUNCH ALERT

			            Brian Webb
		          Ventura County, California
		          E-mail: kd6nrp at earthlink.net
	          Web Site: http://www.spacearchive.info

				          2006 January 14 (Saturday) 07:01 PST
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                          MORE ON STARDUST

In my last Launch Alert I stated the Stardust reentry bright is
expected to be visible over portions of California, Nevada, Oregon,
and Idaho.

Reader Randall C. replied "It'll also be visible in Utah, of course.
With an ideal horizon, it would also be visible in most of Washington,
the southwest half of Montana, the western 2/3 of Wyoming, the western
1/3 of Colorado, the northwest tip of New Mexico, and the northwest
2/3 of Arizona."

Randall may be correct. However, a co-worker and I made a cursory
examination of the information posted on the Internet and it appears
that the brightness of the reentry drops off quickly the farther
away you are from the groundtrack.

In other words it is expected to be roughly as bright as Venus if you
are directly below the craft at the time of maximum heating, but may
only be visible in binoculars if you're a few hundred miles north or
south of the track.

Space analyst Ted Molczan has created an Excel spreadsheet that
computes Stardust re-entry azimuth, elevation, and other data for a
given site (latitude, longitude, and elevation). The spreadsheet is
available at:

  http://satobs.org/seesat_ref/stardust/Stardust_look_angles.zip

According to Molczan, all you need to do is download the spreadsheet
and enter your site data in the cells with the red colored font.

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