As I mentioned on the "main page," we wanted to see if our bonfire! Fire!! FIRE!!!! (Um, heh-heh. Sorry about that.) was indeed visible from orbit. I found out that I had to request data acquistion. I was told by Dr. ****** ******* (I have "starred out" all the names of people mentioned in these email; I'm not really sure that they would want to be mentioned/a part of this. :) ), that I probably wanted to send the request through ****** *********--as he would add more legitimacy (and "umph") to the attempt to get the satellite re-directed. The following is the request I sent to him.
message: A (very) odd request from the seventh floor of the G.I.
******:
This email is intended for ****** *********; if it has reached someone else in error, I apologize.
I was given your name and email by Dr. ****** *******. I have a strange request. I was wondering if you could ask for nighttime data acquisition for (U.T.) Sat 27, Sept03, specifically, 06:40:13.
The reason why the request is so strange, is that we are wondering if our bonfire is truly "visible from orbit." I thought the request would "carry more weight" if you made it---and I can only imagine the response(s) I would receive if I made it, stating the above motivation. ;)
Thank you for all you (sic) help in advance. I wouldn't ask if this weren't at least reasonably important to a fair number of us "up here."
Sincerely,
John Styers
-If you think that's cool---wait 'til you read the response. :)