Posted on 02/16/2008 6:21:57 PM PST by Names Ash Housewares
http://www.heavens-above.com/main.aspx?lat=34.052&lng=-118.243&loc=Los+Angeles&alt=115&tz=PST
Atlantis is docked to the station.
Right passed the Moon and Mars (which is near the moon)by the way.
Our future human exploration goals in space!
Several years ago, I saw a direct overhead pass in the Tennessee mountains on I-26. The sun was just rising and that thing looked like a red ball of fire. And that bad boy was moving on!!
I’m ready. The spy satellite comes over right before, but at it’s magnitude I’d have to be in the mountains to see it.
I’m going out to look in 9 minutes. Thanks for the heads-up!
Thanks. I’ve got 7 minutes...
With out a telescope?
Yes
You CAN’T miss them with the naked eye.
Will appear like a fast moving bright star.
Will pass straight over head.
What direction will it be coming from / headed?
Go out at 6:41 and keep looking straight up...You might not see it until 6:44 when it will be directly overhead in S. California.
NW to SE
Northwest to Southeast
Highest elevation above horizon will be at approx 1844 PST (depending on where in SOCAL you reside).
I think I see it right now., I’m in Hemet. Can hear it. NW to SE.
Thanks so much, we got to see it move all the way across the sky (until a tree blocked our view). Okay, I’m a girl and am going to ask a stupid question: why is it so bright? What illuminates it so much?
Thanks for posting that. Saw it cross the Baja California sky in a fast moving, then fading path. The Mexican guy I pointed it out to (because he asked why I was staring skyward) didn’t believe me. Proud of my country.
If you can hear it, you’ve got real good ears. It’s about 230 miles up, above the atmosphere, so it makes no noise. It’s moving about 17K miles/hr.
It is still in the sun up there, and we are down here in the earths shadow, so it is reflecting all that light, until it goes into the earths shadow too.
So these visable passes are only near sunset or sunrise when we can see the reflected light.
I’m in Menifee. Just saw the space station and through binoculars saw it turn reddish and fade away. Moon and Mars right overhead. Thanks for the alert.
I think I heard mariachi music.
“Proud of my country.”
Indeed.
Words fail when I think of our astronauts and our nations reach for the stars.
It came 5 minutes late from the West, moving really fast. Fantastic sight! Wow!
It’s reflecting the light from the sun, which is just below the horizon. That’s why you can generally only see the space station, satellites, etc. only within 1-1/2 hours after sunset or 1to 11/2 hours before sunrise.
Not an astronomer here, but practically all illumination visible to our eyes is from the sun. Either the light hits it directly and bounces off it, or the light hitting the moon that bounces (reflects) off of it then hits the orbiting satellite. There may be a small (probably infintesimal) amount of illumination from stars, but it is our star/sun that accounts for nearly all the illumination.
It was great to see here in Baja California. Thanks again, original poster.
Saw it! Thanks for the tip! West of the moon here in the Fresno area.
Beautiful and bright here in Northern California. Right on schedule. Truly amazing stuff.
THe space station reflects sunlight. It is well above the shadow if the earth, so even though we are in the evening darkening hours, it is well-lit.
San Diego we had some clouds moving in,
but there were enough breaks in them to see them pass by the Moon and Mars.
It was I think the brightest I have ever seen the station, even with the shuttle docked.
Saw it... thanks for the heads up... it went right between Orion’s shoulders.
I told my wife a woman was driving it and that’s why it kept going into the clouds.
I saw it. There is a grand opening for a spanish market near by with skylight distracting the view.
Here it went through Orion’s belt.
No, I didn’t hear it. When I went back out to my balcony, I realized it was a low sound coming from a building across the street. My daughter’s boyfriend said he could hear it and I assumed it was the shuttle, LOL. Sorry, duh. Not very knowledgable of the shuttle.
Finally! Only scattered clouds for a change.
Plus I was excited and ran with my laptop outside when I saw this thread at 6:41pm. I wanted to let FR know ASAP if I saw anything. Duh, again. :)
If you go to heavens-above.com and punch in your location, you can find times and other stuff about future passes. This one was a bright one, at magnitude -2.2 for me, and there should be some even brighter ones in the near future, as bright as -2.5.
If you don't know what these magnitudes mean: the smaller the magnitude, the brighter. The sun is around -26, the full moon is around -12, and Venus at its brightest (not visible here now; it's a "morning star") is brighter than -4. The faintest stars visible to a good naked eye under ideal skies are around +6.
This skymap program puts this quarter moon at -11.4, Mars (that orange "star" west of the moon, or "right of the moon" for us in the mid-northern latitudes, at -0.1, and Sirius (that brightest whitish star in the southeast) around -1.4. In other words, the ISS was the brightest star-like thing in my sky (it clearly beat out some aircraft too).
Well the other night I was looking up at sky (here in the PNW/Oregon Coast) and saw a light the size of a big star moving along at a slow (not like a shooting star) pace heading SE (I think).
Do you think that could have been a satellite?
Looking at your link, it looks like we can see the rogue spy satellite tomorrow night at about 6:31pm with a magnitude of 1.2? (69 deg. off horizon SW to NE pass?) From what I understand lower mag. means brighter? Thanks.
“USA-193” Spy Sat:
17 Feb 1.2 18:27:14 10 SSW 18:29:30 69 ESE 18:31:09 16 NE
FreeRepublic needs to have loud bells and sirens to alert us to these kinds of threads. I was eating dinner about that time and not aware of it.
I'm pissed. I'd swear that the lady on the news said 6:34, so I stayed outside for five minutes to watch and saw nothing and went inside! Aagh!
Hubby saw it in San Diego - HE SAYS THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for being the all knowing FReepers that you are! It really is exciting to see! Thanks all!!!
Sure could’ve been, especially if there were no blinking lights and it went in a straight line after sunset.
I live in Eastern Washinton and I think I saw that also.
Lucky Bums...
It was Wends. night (don’t remember the time).
I was taking the cans out to the curb and the sky was clear.
Can you do me a favor? I can’t seem to get that link to work for me. Would you put in Eastern Washington and then let me know when I can see it. Thanks!
I saw the Feb 15 pass. But the bright moon is really causing problems for this sat. Also really fast you have to pick it up right away or you’ll miss it. Saw the ISS right after the end of US 193 viewing window in my area.
See Post #38 it works great. I used it for many years.
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