Int'l Space Station Flying over Ireland again now

MooseJam

saw it last night as 10.41

Kevster

Snowbie wrote:

Your getting mixed up with something here.The two are docking by the 15th and are only 1 minute apart and are docked by the 16th.

Isn't the shuttle docking sometime tonight? Hence the reason why you can see the ISS and the shuttle at the same time: 11:02PM.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Mobhi1

Kevster wrote:

Isn't the shuttle docking sometime tonight? Hence the reason why you can see the ISS and the shuttle at the same time: 11:02PM.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

Yes. That was my impression. Their times are the same from tonight for the rest of the week!

Snowbie

skelliser wrote:

snowbie: we are bought arguing the same thing!! and as for the 15 have a look for yourself on heavens above, they must have gotten it wrong, maybe because the shuttle was delayed at launch?

No argument mate,just going on what the link is saying which is probaby wrong.
I dont know if it has docked or going to dock soon.
Anyone know when this is? if it is tonight

Kevster

It was due to dock at 3:36PM Eastern Daylight-Savings Time (EDT) according to the NASA article - That's 7:36PM our time. Thus, it should be docked as we speak.

Edit: Yep, It's docked. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6738923.stm

Mobhi1

Yes. According to this it docked at 1938 GMT today, 354km above the western Pacific : http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6738923.stm


Looks like I was a bit slow with my reply there; you got in first!

Snowbie

Should be much brighter then.:)

radiospan

Just saw it there. Didn't think it would be that fast!

matdabomb

I duno. Saw something that passed over. But dont know if it might have just been plane, How would you know the difference?

Kevster

... ...just saw it too. Sky News active were showing live coverage of inside the ISS about 30 minutes ago but they aren't now, unfortunately.

Edser

Just saw this too - very impressive!

I had no binoculars or telescope, but how difficult would it be to find/track with a telescope at that speed?

MooseJam

I waved, can they see me too

bennyx_o

Just saw it there aswell, tried to look at it through a pair of anchient binoculars and it didn't make much of a difference.

Kevster

matdabomb wrote:

I duno. Saw something that passed over. But dont know if it might have just been plane, How would you know the difference?

umm, I go by the sound of an engine: If you hear the jet engine it's an airplane; If you hear nothing it's the ISS. Plus, if it's an airplane you would most likely see the lights on the wing-tips which are generally red.

MooseJam

jets have flashing lights, the space station doesn't it's just like a bright star traversing the sky

djfattony2000

Jeasus the speed of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kevster

MooseJam wrote:

I waved, can they see me too

They'd be able to see the lights of Dublin and other large settlements.

matdabomb

Yeah what I saw moved fast enough. Took about 5 mins to go from one side to the next.

It looked like Venus ( I think it was Venus. Venus was in the westerly direction and bright?) but moving quick.

I got a pair of good Binoculars, Would the be able to make anything out?

Snowbie

Less than 90mins it should pass over again and brighter again due to complete darkness.

matdabomb

Watching Nasa tv at the moment. Is cool the are removing some payload.

Velcrow

We waved too! I'm sure they could see me as the station kinda wobbled....

monkeyfudge

I just caught the 0.37 showing.

Great stuff... I certainly don't fancy trying to track it with my telescope.. it takes me about 5 minutes just to find the moon and the space station only hung around for about 4 minutes.

-Al-

Watched it again tonight (not as bright as last night - boo!

Just before it dissapeared behind some trees i noticed another dot infront of it roughly on the same track. Was this atlantis or has it already docked or was it just a random satelite?

Wisesmurf

some good footage on nasa tv now

Dr Pepper

Saw it several times over the weekend (with the shuttle trailing behind). Pretty cool!

Some interesting facts about the ISS (open to correction as I heard them at the Astronomy Ireland viewing on Friday night and not from an official source.. although they seem to know their stuff!):

- Before docking the ISS carried a crew of 3 (2 men & 1 woman). The shuttle had 7 men on board
- It takes less than a minute to pass over Ireland. As it passes away from us to the East, it can still be seen when it is over France, making it the furthest man-made object that any of us is likely to have ever seen (that I can think of anyway!)
- Weighs approx 200 ton, shuttle weighs approx 100 ton
- Cost approx $100,000,000,000 ($100 billion!!) making it the most expensive object ever built
- It is continuously being expanded/built in space and will weigh 400-500 ton by the time its finished. The materials for these extensions are provided by the shuttle.
- It will most likely be visible during the day when its extensions are complete (due to large solar panel extensions reflecting more light)
- Takes about 96 mins to orbit the Earth (which means that the astronauts onboard experience a ~45 minute day, followed by a ~45 minute night and so on.. Pretty disturbing!)
- The person on board the longest has been there since about December. The longest any human has been in space is 14 months (apparantly he lost 30% of his bone-mass in the zero gravity environment.. which can never be replaced)
- There are several hundred (600-700) man-made satellites in orbit. I could see about as many satellites drifting overhead this weekend as I could planes! The purposes of these include communications, military, weather, scientific, etc. There are also a large number of 'junk' satellites (e.g. 'spent' rocket casings that were used to propel a payload into orbit and ended up in orbit themselves after separating from their 'passangers')

dloob

Saw the 12:30 pass last night.
Noticed just after it disappeared from view that there was something else on a similar west to east track but higher in the sky. Not near as bright I suppose it was some other satellite.
How long does the shuttles fuel tank stay in orbit for?

Dr Pepper

Here is an article about a rocket suspected to have been used in the 1969 Apollo 11 mission which left Earth's orbit in 1971 and fell into a solar orbit. It has recently been swept up again into an Earth orbit:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/space_junk_020919.html

So, to answer your question, this object has been floating around space for almost 40 years but I guess other objects' time in orbit will probably vary according to their weight/speed/altitude/initial trajectory..

Here is an interesting BBC article on 'space junk':
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/earth/spacejunk.shtml

sharkman

You can track it here :http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/index.html

sharkman

THE FOLLOWING ISS SIGHTINGS ARE POSSIBLE FROM WED JUN 06 TO MON JUN 18
SATELLITE LOCAL DURATION MAX ELEV APPROACH DEPARTURE
DATE/TIME (MIN) (DEG) (DEG-DIR) (DEG-DIR)

ISS Wed Jun 06/11:15 PM 5 35 10 above SW 12 above E
ISS Thu Jun 07/00:49 AM 5 60 10 above W 11 above E
ISS Thu Jun 07/02:24 AM 5 35 10 above W 11 above SE
ISS Thu Jun 07/04:01 AM < 1 10 10 above SW 10 above SSW
ISS Thu Jun 07/11:35 PM 5 51 10 above WSW 11 above E
ISS Fri Jun 08/01:10 AM 5 53 10 above W 11 above ESE
ISS Fri Jun 08/02:45 AM 2 20 11 above WSW 20 above SW
ISS Fri Jun 08/11:56 PM 5 60 10 above W 11 above E
ISS Sat Jun 09/01:31 AM 3 36 10 above W 30 above SSE
ISS Sat Jun 09/10:42 PM 5 49 10 above WSW 11 above E
ISS Sun Jun 10/00:16 AM 5 54 10 above W 11 above ESE
ISS Sun Jun 10/01:52 AM 1 18 11 above WSW 18 above WSW
ISS Sun Jun 10/11:02 PM 5 60 10 above WSW 11 above E
ISS Mon Jun 11/00:37 AM 4 38 10 above W 27 above SSE
ISS Mon Jun 11/11:23 PM 5 55 10 above W 11 above ESE
ISS Tue Jun 12/00:58 AM 2 23 12 above W 23 above SSW
ISS Tue Jun 12/11:43 PM 5 40 10 above W 15 above SE
ISS Wed Jun 13/01:19 AM < 1 10 10 above WSW 10 above WSW
ISS Thu Jun 14/00:04 AM 3 25 10 above W 21 above S
ISS Thu Jun 14/10:49 PM 5 42 10 above W 10 above ESE
ISS Fri Jun 15/00:25 AM 2 14 10 above WSW 14 above SSW
ISS Fri Jun 15/11:10 PM 5 27 10 above W 12 above SSE
ISS Sat Jun 16/11:30 PM 3 15 10 above WSW 12 above S




ONLY DAYS WITH SIGHTING OPPORTUNITIES ARE LISTED


THE FOLLOWING SHUTTLE SIGHTINGS ARE POSSIBLE FROM SAT JUN 09 TO THU JUN 21
SATELLITE LOCAL DURATION MAX ELEV APPROACH DEPARTURE
DATE/TIME (MIN) (DEG) (DEG-DIR) (DEG-DIR)

SHUTTLE Sat Jun 09/10:59 PM 4 44 11 above WSW 11 above E
SHUTTLE Sun Jun 10/00:31 AM 2 36 10 above W 36 above SW
SHUTTLE Sun Jun 10/11:02 PM 5 60 10 above WSW 11 above E
SHUTTLE Mon Jun 11/00:37 AM 4 38 10 above W 27 above SSE
SHUTTLE Mon Jun 11/11:22 PM 5 56 10 above W 11 above ESE
SHUTTLE Tue Jun 12/00:58 AM 2 23 12 above W 23 above SSW
SHUTTLE Tue Jun 12/11:43 PM 5 40 10 above W 15 above SE
SHUTTLE Wed Jun 13/01:19 AM < 1 10 10 above WSW 10 above WSW
SHUTTLE Thu Jun 14/00:03 AM 3 25 10 above W 21 above S
SHUTTLE Thu Jun 14/10:49 PM 5 42 10 above W 10 above ESE
SHUTTLE Fri Jun 15/00:24 AM 2 14 10 above WSW 14 above SSW
SHUTTLE Fri Jun 15/11:09 PM 5 27 10 above W 12 above SSE
SHUTTLE Sat Jun 16/11:30 PM 3 15 10 above WSW 12 above S




ONLY DAYS WITH SIGHTING OPPORTUNITIES ARE LISTED

Dr Pepper

It just gets better and better! Check out the linked image below taken with a 25" scope (not beyond the reach of a reasonably wealthy (or totally obsessed!) amateur astronomer)

Read the 'Explaination':
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070628.html

If you liked that, bookmark this link to see the 'picture of the day' every day:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html