From: hathaway@stsci.edu
Subject: Re: cryptocraft photography, Re: Aurora 
Organization: Space Telescope Science Institute
Distribution: sci,na
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 05:52:54 GMT

In article <1992Dec17.040911.15524@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, dnadams@nyx.cs.du.edu (Dean Adams) writes:
> 
> anthony@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Anthony J Stieber) writes:
>>dnadams@nyx.cs.du.edu (Dean Adams) writes:
>  >>Were there any photos of the F-117A prior to the official release? 
>  >>I don't beleive so, even though it flew for almost a decade.
>  >Yes, at least one in AW&ST, July 10, 1989, p22.  
> 
> Yes... but the "official release" that I was speaking of took place on 
> November 10, 1988.  That is when the AF first acknowledged the F-117As
> existence and released a single photo (which AW&ST of course printed :).  
> 
>  >This is sometime after the first flights of the craft in 1981, but of 
>  >course all the early flights were done exclusivly at night.  
> 
> The Have Blues flew in 1977, and the first F-117A flew on June 18, 1981.
> In all that time it seems nobody really managed to catch a good view of 
> them on film (at least nobody without a Senior Trend clearance :)
> 
>  >I'm sure there will be pictures of whatever this/these craft are.
> I'll certainly be waiting...  It may be a while though.
> 
>  >Someone with camera and a telescope lens will catch it.
> The sky is awfully BIG...
> 

Yes, indeed, it includes everything up there... 

However, there are a lot of people observing.  I wish the following 
observation could have been recorded on film or tape, but it was a 
visual observation by two people of something we have not yet nailed 
down.  If the following were a satellite, it either had to have been 
high up (notice it was seen after midnight EDT) or been low enough 
to pick up and reflect sufficient ground illumination.  All attempts 
to match it with known satellites have found nothing. Perhaps it 
was a sighting of this whatever???  I'd sure like to ID it. 
Serious comments most welcome. 

  description of observation: 

    Observation:  Unknown 
    Observers:    I. Cooper, W. H. Hathaway 
    Date:         night of 8-9 JUN 1991 
    Time:         ~3-5 minutes both before and after 12:40:30 am EDT 
                  - this time checked via phone while object was 
                  being followed 
    Site:         Severn MD,  Long: 76 Dg 38 Mn W, Lat: +39 Dg 11 Mn 
    With:         10" f/6 Cave Astrola 
    Eyepiece:     28mm Meade Orthoscopic 
    R.A./Dec:     picked up while sweeping for NGC6829 in Cygnus, 
                  roughly 19-20 Hr, + 50 Degrees,
                  followed continuously to vicinity of northern Ophiuchus 
                  roughly 16-17 Hr, + 10 Degrees, 
                  until obscured by leaves of large maple tree 
    Magnitude:    roughly 8th magnitude 
    Appearance:   ! extended object !, shaped somewhat like a horseshoe, but 
                  sides squeezed together, or like a sharply closed 
                  boomerang.  Overall size, roughly 1 arcminute. 
                  (eye-ball comparison with disk of Jupiter) 
                  Each 'arm' maybe 20 arcsec in width, 40 arcsec in length, 
                  and the black space between the arms about 10 arcsec in width.
                  It looked much like the picture of HST on page 32 in the 
                  July 1991 Sky and Telescope, but more "U" or "V" shaped 
                  rather than the skewed "H" shape.  Note that was 1 1/4 
                  arcSECONDS across from a distance of 1000 kilometers. 
                  The surface texture was reminescent of a planetary nebula, 
                  though with less surface brightness than the Ring Nebula. 
                  Slight color - creamy, light brown to tannish - not 
                  distinguishable from solar reflection. 
                  Starlight clearly seen in the 'notch' between the arms. 
                  Starlight possibly visible when passing behind each arm. 
                  The direction of motion was _not_ along the axis of the 
                  arms, more like 45 degrees from their intersection. 
                  No point or point-like lights, no navigation lights,  
                  colored nor white.  Sketch made immediately afterward. 
                  
  Identification: It had all the familiar steady motion of an 
                  Earth satellite, but _not_ in a common Direct orbit from 
                  West to East.  Motion actually more like from NE by N to 
                  SW by S.  If a satellite, it was in a near-polar orbit, but 
                  Retrograde.  

Wm. Hathaway 

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