Shuttle ISS visable pass tonight, Extreme Southern California

Heavens Above ^

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[ChadGore]

cool stuff bump

[ChadGore]

Some great photos here

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Interesting...

But the ISS, will be 431 km away at its closest. At that distance, it would have to be more than 200 feet in diameter (along its narrowest dimension) to completely occlude Jupiter which is about 30 arc seconds across as viewed from the Earth. Even then it would only be a very tiny swath on the Earth that would see Jupiter "blink". Of course the ISS will be bathed in sunlight, is considerably closer to the Sun and (by design) has a much higher albedo than Jupiter, so if it were that big it would be more than 25X brighter (4.2 lower visible magnitude.)

I suspect that only a very narrow swath will actually witness the ISS transit Jupiter. For a naked eye observer, anything less than a few arc minutes will look like an exact conjunction. Good seeing!

[BIGZ]

Great stuff if you have a degree in astronomy. For those of us who do not, where is Jupiter in relation to the moon, which most can find, North , South East, West, next to or what?

Here is the Moon, Here is Jupiter, here is the shuttle.

In my best colloquial English, Grassy Ass, for the help.

[BIGZ]

Great stuff if you have a degree in astronomy. For those of us who do not, where is Jupiter in relation to the moon, which most can find, North , South East, West, next to or what?

Here is the Moon, Here is Jupiter, here is the shuttle.

In my best colloquial English, Grassy Ass, for the help.

[CyberAnt]

Yeah, sure .. like I have any idea where in the sky Jupiter is .. get real!

But .. I have a southern view of the sky and I've noticed a huge star - what I would consider above the moon's path, and slightly to the right of the moon.

Is that Jupiter ..??

[Names Ash Housewares]

8:24PM start looking, Best I can do is show the chart, Jupiter is about the brightest "star" in the sky right now. Shuttle and Station will be impossible to miss, they will be quite bright, moving swiftly, nearly as bright as Jupiter...

[cabojoe]

If you are around San Diego, this might help. Go outside, and point your hand to the Northwest horizon. Then point at a spot to the Southwest that is a little bit more than halfway from the horizon to straight up (52 degrees). This is usually where you will first see satellites, at the apex of their arc across the sky. Then point to the horizon at the South-Southeast. Now draw an arc through all of the above points starting at the Northwest and ending in the South-Southeast. That is the arc that the shuttle/station will take. Hope this helps.

[repubpub]

Here is the NASA tracking sight. They have a place to enter your city and they will give you the time of the ISS and Space Shuttle passing in your view.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/

[KoRn]

I've seen shuttles fly over while in orbit. Very cool to see.

[GATOR NAVY]

Friday was my best bet but it was overcast. Last night was clear but the elevation maxed out at 15 degrees which didn't even get it over the trees. Tonight is a total no go.

[KevinDavis]

[Central Scrutiniser]

I had a good one last night. In fact, passes every night since Wednesday.

[A. Pole]

For those of us who do not, where is Jupiter in relation to the moon, which most can find, North , South East, West, next to or what?

General rule - the solar system is flat so the planets, Sun and Moon are on the same plane or path called equinox. So look for planets on the same path as the Sun passes during the day.

Here is one planet finder

[WSGilcrest]

[markman46]

Saw it.. here in Orange County moving fast across toward the SE. passed just below Jupiter.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Just missed Jupiter. Nice pass, very bright and could follow it for quite some time.

[NordP]

We saw it...we saw it!!!

It looks JUST like Venus (you can see it, too) and crosses pretty close to it on its way overhead. It moves across at about 3 "sky inches" a second.