Space Station/Shuttle Atlantis visable pass tonight! Southern California 6:40 PM

Heavens Above ^ | today

[Names Ash Housewares]

http://www.heavens-above.com/main.aspx?lat=34.052&lng=-118.243&loc=Los+Angeles&alt=115&tz=PST

[Spunky]

DARN!

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.

[Squeako]

San Diego we had some clouds moving in, but there were enough breaks in them to see them pass by the Moon and Mars.

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!

[NordP]

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!!!

[cabojoe]

Sure could’ve been, especially if there were no blinking lights and it went in a straight line after sunset.

[Spunky]

"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)."

I live in Eastern Washinton and I think I saw that also.

[Global2010]

Lucky Bums...

[Global2010]

It was Wends. night (don’t remember the time).

I was taking the cans out to the curb and the sky was clear.

[Spunky]

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!

[TaMoDee]

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.

[TaMoDee]

See Post #38 it works great. I used it for many years.

[Drago]

Looks like the next best one for you (and me) is Monday evening...I dialed in Spokane, WA and this is the table:

Date Mag Starts Max. altitude Ends Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.

16 Feb -1.9 18:40:40 10 NW 18:43:27 60 SW 18:45:43 14 SE

17 Feb 0.6 19:02:01 10 W 19:03:52 16 SW 19:05:43 10 S

18 Feb -2.1 17:46:55 10 NW 17:49:44 72 SW 17:52:31 10 SE

19 Feb 0.6 18:08:02 10 W 18:10:06 19 SW 18:12:10 10 S

Monday’s magnitude -2.1 is brighter than tonight’s pass...72 degrees off the horizon.

Pass Details
Date: Monday, 18 February, 2008
Satellite: ISS
Observer’s Location: Spokane, WA ( 36.8269°N, 119.7372°W)
Local Time: Pacific Standard Time (GMT - 8:00)
Orbit: 331 x 339 km, 51.6° (Epoch 16 Feb)
Sun altitude at time of
maximum pass altitude: -2.3°

Event Time Altitude Azimuth Distance (km)
Rises above horizon 17:44:56 0° 309° (NW ) 2,103
Reaches 10° altitude 17:46:55 10° 307° (NW ) 1,268
Maximum altitude 17:49:43 72° 224° (SW ) 354
Drops below 10° altitude 17:52:32 10° 138° (SE ) 1,264
Sets 17:54:31 -0° 136° (SE ) 2,095

[KarlInOhio]

One of the more interesting pictures of the space station and Atlantis was from 2006 when they passed in front of the sun. The pictures are a little too big to link, but they are worth a look.

http://legault.club.fr/iss_atlantis_transit.html

Those of you who saw it tonight, think about how fast it would have crossed the sun at the speed it was moving and how fortunate the photographer was to get this shot.

[JoJo Gunn]

The station can be brighter than Venus. (This is a 15 second exposure, no zoom, from a little Canon A510). 

 

[Names Ash Housewares]

Monday at 5:50 PM should be another good one, if it is dark enough.

[Spunky]

Great Shot!

[Squeako]

Monday at 5:50 PM should be another good one, if it is dark enough.

Thanks! :)

[BJungNan]

Now you tell me. Why didn’t you post this earlier so I could go out and see it. Geez. I thought FR was like three days ahead of events. We are slipping around here.

So, since I obviously missed it, what did it look like?

[JoJo Gunn]

Thanks, Spunky.

You can see a little bit of a streak (at the top of the trail) where I pushed the shutter button instead of set the self timer first. Was excited to be able to catch it at all, I guess.

Used to be you could sign up at one of the NASA sites and they’d e-mail you the times to see the station, the shuttle, Hubbell, etc, according to your zip code, but they stopped it a year or so back. What I’d really like to see is the shuttle trailing just behind the station before docking. Time is running out for that, though. sigh

[Names Ash Housewares]

Looks like a fast moving very bright star.

You can go here and enter your city for any future passes, they happen quite often.....

http://www.heavens-above.com/

There is another one Monday evening.
Atlantis may be undocked by then, we may see them both pass over seperately. :)

[Spunky]

"So, since I obviously missed it, what did it look like?

See post #53 for a picture of it a Freeper took.