Lost Toolbag...

Route 66

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This would be a perfect "Wanna Get Away?" Southwest Airlines Commercial for the astronaut who did this. :D

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,457344,00.html

Astronaut's Lost Toolbag Visible From Earth


The lost toolbag passing over Brockville, Ontario, as captured by amateur astronomer Kevin Fetter.

The lost toolbag passing over Brockville, Ontario, as captured by amateur astronomer Kevin Fetter.

Remember that expensive bag of tools a spacewalking astronaut let go of last week? Now you can see it from Earth — if you've got a telescope.

Amateur astronomer Kevin Fetter caught video of the orbiting object from his Brockville, Ontario backyard Saturday, and posted it online for all to see.

"I don't have any [professional] background in astronomy," Fetter admitted to The Age of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. "Just one night I looked up at the night sky and got hooked on astronomy. It was many years later that I started satellite observing."

Fetter used an orbital calculator on the astronomy Web site SpaceWeather.com to determine exactly when the lost bag, estimated to cost about $100,000 once the specialized tools are factored in, would be passing overhead.

"Depending on the size of the object and how much light its surface reflects will determine if I can see it, and get it on video," he told The Age.

Astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper accidentally released the tether holding the bag to the International Space Station during the current space shuttle mission's first spacewalk on Nov. 18.

It contained two grease guns that were specially fitted to lubricate joints on the space station's huge solar-panel arrays, both of which need to turn to face the sun in order for the orbiting habitat to attain full power.

"Oh, great," Stefanyshyn-Piper said as it drifted away into space.

Experts say the bag and its contents will eventually harmlessly burn up in the Earth's atmosphere, though it poses a risk to the space station and other orbiting satellites until then.
 

Rack

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Cajuncowboy

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That must be some freakin' telescope that guy has. I mean, how do you look at something like that and go.."Hey! That looks like a tool bag!"?

I don't doubt that it is, it just seems odd.
 

Signals

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Cajuncowboy;2443771 said:
That must be some freakin' telescope that guy has. I mean, how do you look at something like that and go.."Hey! That looks like a tool bag!"?

I don't doubt that it is, it just seems odd.
I remember about 5 years ago I had a part time job during the Christmas season in the Dallas Galleria mall at the The Discovery Channel Store.

They had this $500 dollar reflecting telescope in the store that we took out on top of the parking garage one night. It had this remote control unit that had 1000's of celestial bodies preprogrammed into it, so it was easy to zoom into anything we wanted as long as it was viewable on the horizon that night.

The most memorable was viewing Saturn and its rings live.

We would also take a few telescopes out to the local park on nights during a full moon and have star gazing parties and grill out. It was fantastic being able to zoom in to rocks on the moon live.

It's amazing how powerful a telescope with a 6 inch lens can be.

Anyway Cajun, it doesn't take much at all to read the print on a tool bag floating just out side the earths atmosphere.
 
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