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Tracking the ISS


Tyneside, UK
2024 Mar 28
Thursday, Day 88

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STS-127/Endeavour from UK: 2009 Jul 15, L+23 Minutes

The photo was taked from Lincoln in the UK as Endeavour passed near southern Spain. The launch was at 22:03 UTC but despite the local time being nearly midnight, the sky was still quite bright.

STS-127 Trail

The brightest trail is Endeavour itself but the fainter trail just below is that of the External Tank. To the naked eye, it appeared distinctly orange in colour. Endeavour reached about magnitude -1 and the tank maybe magnitude 0. With the sun being below the horizon near where the Shuttle first rose, it was not the best angle of illumination for a bright visual appearance.

The camera was a Nikon D80 fitted with a Nikon 35mm f1.8 lens.
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