[Phil V.]

Anyway, when the camera zooms in at first it looks like the shuttle is going sideways with the rear of the shuttle facing camera and the left wing facing the direction of travel!

I saw that too. I also heard that the left side of the fuselage (topside of the left wing) was showing a significantly higher temperature than the right. My gut says that there is more here. I think that the close-up was from a telescope in California, but I'm not sure.

[Phil V.]

. . . on the other hand, it could have been the camera lens' iris . . .