Space Shuttle and meteor shower visible in Washington skies

March 14, 5:50 PMDC Space News ExaminerKeith Stein

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Photo: NASA

Weather permitting, Sunday night, Washington, D.C. area residents should be able to see the flickering flames from Space Shuttle Discovery’s three main engines, a few minutes after launch from Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

The nighttime launch, scheduled for 7:43 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, could provide a dazzling display for the whole eastern seaboard, as long as clouds stay out of the way.

After lift-off, the shuttle will proceed northeast over the ocean, nearly parallel to the U.S. East Coast. Approximately seven minutes after lift-off, Discovery will be visible to the Washington, D.C. area.

Discovery’s three main engines will make the shuttle look like a burning, or flickering, yellow-orange star moving low on the horizon in the eastern sky. Past launch observers with binoculars have reported being able to make out the shuttle's V-shaped tail. If you see an object that clearly has blinking lights, keep searching - that’s a plane.

The shuttle will be visible to sky-watchers as far north as the southern tip of Nova Scotia and as far west as the Appalachian Mountains.

You will need an unobstructed view of the eastern sky, as the shuttle will appear very low to the horizon, no higher than the width of a fist on an outstretched arm. Don’t know what direction is east? Think about it. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.

During past launches, Washington observers have witnessed the shuttle’s main engines shutdown and reported seeing a faint object fall away. This is separation of the large rust color external fuel tank.

If clouds do get in the way, you can always listen to voice communications directly from the crew.

Hearing the shuttle

You will need a police radio scanner that covers radio frequencies from 225 to 400 megahertz (MHz), sometimes referred to as the “military air band,” or UHF band. You can pickup one of these radios at your local Radio Shack.

The shuttle uses the following radio frequencies during launch:

• 259.700 AM Mode - Primary voice
• 296.800 AM Mode - Secondary voice
• 243.000 AM Mode - Emergency

Make sure you are in AM mode when you plug these frequencies into your radio - very important.

You will hear a few very brief voice transmissions from the crew talking to Mission Control. Communication is kept brief since the crew is very busy monitoring onboard systems during launch.

An added bonus for Sunday night is the annual Corona-Australids meteor shower.

Meteor Shower

The Corona-Australids is a short duration meteor shower, lasting only from March 14 to March 18. It is best observed in far southern latitudes. Nonetheless, the meteors sometime travel northward from the south, with as many as five to seven meteors per hour being seen. The peak of the shower is 4:45 a.m. on March 16.