International Space Station to make bright passes over North America and Europe this week

several sources | May 19, 2008 | several authors

[Eye On The Left]

From spaceweather.com for Monday, May 19, 2008:

The 2008 "ISS Marathon" gets underway this week when the International Space Station spends three days (May 21-23) in almost-constant sunlight. Sky watchers in Europe and North America can see the bright spaceship gliding overhead two to four times each night. Please try our new and improved Simple Satellite Tracker to find out when to look.

The station is not only bright and easy to see with the naked eye, but also it makes a fine target for backyard telescopes:

"I took these pictures during the early morning hours of May 12th using a 5-inch refractor." says amateur astronomer Dirk Ewers of Hofgeismar, Germany. For five minutes, he tracked the ISS across the sky and his *MOVIE* of the entire 75 [degree] transit is a must see [90 degrees is directly above your head, so 75 degs is about 3/4s above the horizon].

You can also view the 0.9 MB movie here:
http://spaceweather.com/swpod2008/18may08/ewers_uncompressed.AVI?PHPSESSID=1ql2ei173r1psr1saotd9pdit2

Source: http://spaceweather.com/
(for Monday, May 19, 2008)

________________________________________________________

Important note for first time Space Station observers:

Unless the Station is scheduled to pass 20 or more (depending on your viewing location--obstructions, etc) degrees above the horizon (see the above "Satellite Tracker" guide), you may not see it at all. But if the pass IS high enough above the horizon from your particular location, it will "look" like a very bright white star (w/ no blinking or colored lights whatsoever) moving at a steady rate of speed (about the apparent rate of a high-flying airplane--ISS actually is travelling about 4.5 miles per second). Also, it will NOT be visible right at the time the schedule indicates it will first appear or 'rise', so give it a minute or so. The schedule mentions the "transit time". This is the time when the ISS is at it's highest angle above your own unique (local) horizon. Finally, they list the "magnitude" of the pass. This is simply the brightness of the pass. Due to some old rules which were never updated, the LOWER the number for magnitude, the BRIGHTER an object is. ie, negative magnitudes are very bright. When Venus is at her spectacular brightest, she's about a mag minus 4.7 --Eye On The Left.

Here is a link to an animated cloud map for the U.S. from the Weather Channel website. Because if it's too cloudy you won't of course see anything:
http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/satelliteusnational/index_large_animated.html

[Eye On The Left]

"The International Space Station (ISS) is a research facility currently being assembled in space.
The on-orbit assembly of ISS began in 1998. The space station is in a low Earth orbit and can be seen from Earth with the naked eye:
it has an altitude of approximately 350 km (217 mi)[1] above the surface of the Earth, and travels at an average speed of 27,700 km
(17,210 statute miles) per hour [roughly 4.5 miles per second!], completing 15.77 orbits per day."[it takes the ISS about 90 min to go once around the Earth]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station

How big is the International Space Station?
"The complete ISS will be over 100meters [~300 feet] long and more than 70meters [~210 feet] wide.
For comparison, the space shuttles are about 38meters [~100 feet] long.
A shuttle would stretch from home plate to second base on a baseball diamond
and the Space Station would reach from home plate all the way to the outfield walls.
The inside of the Station, when complete, will have a volume roughly equal to that of three jumbo jets.
The Space Station pieces will be launched into orbit over the course of more than 40 missions,
during which they will be assembled like a giant LEGO space project."
http://www.canadainspace.ca/spacefacts_fact.php?item[0]=fact&item[1]=lesson&sectionName=facts&sectionID=1&topicID=-1&topicIdentifier=-1&topicAbbreviation=spaceStn&ID=139&factNumber=7&factNo=8&nextID=138

[econjack]

The short video is absolutely amazing!

[theFIRMbss]

Also in the sky,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Mars
will pass in front of

the Beehive cluster
in Cancer. Mars if very
pumpkin orange now.

The Beehive cluster
has mostly young, blue-white stars.
It should be something!

[Eye On The Left]

And it was done by an “amateur”!

[KarlInOhio]

I'm impressed with how well it tracked. Most amateur (and even professional) telescopes are set up to smoothly follow stars as they travel once around in about 24 hours, but won't track an object traveling a lot faster than that in both azimuth and elevation.

[RightWhale]

See if you can see this recent addition:

The Russian Progress M-64 cargo spacecraft has successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS), a Mission Control spokesman said on Saturday. The spacecraft docked at 1:39 a.m. Moscow time (21.39 GMT Friday) and delivered more than 2.3 tons of fuel, food, water, and other supplies to the ISS.

http://www.spacedaily.com/

[omega4412]

Another good source for when satellites will be visible is http://www.heavens-above.com/.

You can put in lat and long and get predictions for your exact location. (More important for Iridium flares than
for the space station.)

[Eye On The Left]

See if you can see this recent addition:

"The Russian Progress M-64 cargo spacecraft has successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS), a Mission Control spokesman said on Saturday."--spacedaily.com

Progress spacecraft: Used to supply the International Space Station, originally used to supply Soviet and Russian space stations (see Mir)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_spacecraft

Well, here is a still shot from the movie the guy did of the ISS. I'm not sure if I can see Progress or not. Maybe it's that little gizmo out on the far left. ("far left"...Russia? hmmm)

[Domandred]

Oh cool on the 21st I have two flyovers between dark and bedtime at -1.3 and -1.6 magnitudes. 22nd though is best at -3.0 magnitude, only one flyby there though before bed.

[Eye On The Left]

Thanks! I’ve used HA for years. They also have good info on what planets are visible, how far away they are at the moment, sky charts, etc.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks. :’) KD, pingworthy?

[toldyou]

PING!

[coop71]

This is a week late, but thanks for the ISS info! I tried for 4 nights and finally got a good shot of it - this was last night over Greensboro, NC. Again, thanks since without your post, I never would have known about it!