Well got up early to see anything on the re-entry. But was disappointed.
I didn't see anything but a some small meteors falling.
At one point a bright small flash happened around the track of the shuttle on re-entry.
The scene was set, I was awake, watching NASATV, absolute clear skies and had the camera at the ready.
They missed the first deorbit due to weather contraints.
They got the 2nd deorbit, 12 minutes later, they were due to come overhead.
Found the best spot that I could, very hard due to light pollution, but took some happy snaps of nothing.
I did get a small meteor around Eta Carinae, but that was about it.
So no sparks, no nothing from the Shuttle perspective. Disappointed yes, but I had the experience of trying the camera out.
I had a lot of confusion with the ground tracks as the NASA info didn't marry up with other info I had.
But all in all, I was in the right spot at the right time, just didn't see anything this time.
But the most evident history, is usually the last round trip that they do the deorbit burn on, goes over Melbourne or Tassie, so we get the chance to view the first effects of the atmosphere.
Here's some of my pics. I've tried to look them over a lot, but can't see any smudges. Darn it.
Camera is pointed approx due South / South West and captures from horizon to about 20-30degrees.
Shuttle wasn't supposed to get over 14 degrees in altitude.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3635/...8eba31f1_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3633/...3faf14b2_b.jpg
Taken with a Fujifilm S1000FD 10MP. On Aperture priority, Fully open aperture (think about 2.4), high light gain, ISO 800 and 1600 and about a 6-8 exposure. Any lower than ISO800 made it too dark and 3200 was just too exposed and grainy
The light pollution did make a warm abience to it all.
Thanks to Vincent who also tried to view.
I might have to make an animation to look for any smudges or changes.