SUNSET PLANETS AND SPACESHIPS (ISS & Shuttle making visible passes over parts of US tonight and Sun)

SpaceWeather.com ^ | May 15, 2010

[ETL]

"When the sun sets tonight, go outside and look west. You'll see Venus and the crescent Moon beaming together through the twilight. And don't be surprised if you see a spaceship, too. The ISS and Atlantis are circling Earth and flying over many US towns and cities this evening. A four-way conjunction of planets and spaceships is not out of the question.

Check the Simple Satellite Tracker for flyby predictions." (simply enter zip code):
http://www.spaceweather.com/flybys/?PHPSESSID=1ukve2rqseki17ff29cn687l52&PHPSESSID=r3eer56o4hit72t92i8r6l7u24

[ETL]

The International Space Station (ISS) appears as a bright white "star" with no blinking or colored lights. It moves across the sky at the apparent rate of a high-flying airplane (slowly). It is actually orbiting Earth at about 18,000 miles/hour or 5 miles/sec. But at approx 220 miles above the surface, it seems to move slowly. ISS makes it once around the Earth every ~90 minutes. It is about the size of a football field.

A more sophisticated website for observing satellite passes is Heavens-Above.com . You will need to provide them your general location. I advise registering with the site so that next time you won't need to enter your location. Look for ISS (International Space Station):
http://heavens-above.com/

Also note, that on the brightness magnitude scale, the LOWER the number (including negatives), the BRIGHTER the pass. i.e. a -3 is much brighter than a 3. --ETL

[ETL]

Also see:

A Rare Meeting of Planets and Spaceships
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/13may_planetsandspaceships/

[rstrahan]

It’ll probably be way to cloudy down here to see it, but I’ve seen it before. It’s really neat. Too bad the O administration wants to dismantle our space program. Billions for banks but none for space exploration. Banks give donations for election campaigns, space explorers don’t have the money. Guess it’s as simple as that. Remember that Walter Mondale led the Dems to dismantle the moon shot programs and downsized the shuttle program from a true space plane.

[Dallas59]

[Repeal The 17th]

bookmark for tonight.

[oh8eleven]

Way cool ...

[Republic]

bttt