Shuttle Launch Visible from Ireland Tonight

podgeandrodge

Hi Guys, I'm in Dungarvan with clear skies. At about 12:04 I saw a bright "star" moving quickly across the sky - brighter than a normal star and moving quite quickly - lasted about 3 minutes - was this the ISS or am I a fool watching a plane (but it seemed too high for a plane!!)

jumpguy

podgeandrodge wrote: »

Hi Guys, I'm in Dungarvan with clear skies. At about 12:04 I saw a bright "star" moving quickly across the sky - brighter than a normal star and moving quite quickly - lasted about 3 minutes - was this the ISS or am I a fool watching a plane (but it seemed too high for a plane!!)

Probably, the ISS was heading west to east (from where the sun sets to the sun rises) and was very bright, so if what you saw was heading in that direction then it was the ISS. If it was a plane the lights would be flashing.

skelliser

ya that was it
i saw the progress re-supply ship as well, just ahead of it but alot dimmer

larchielads

breaking news on sky space shuttle launch postponed due to bad weather no news as to when its reschudled to launch yet

lord lucan

jumpguy wrote: »

Yerra feck. Reasonable skies here, enough to see the ISS anyway.
With the launch so early in the evening tomorrow (6.15pm) will it be visible?

Rescheduled to 23.51 irish time tomorrow,should be still visible weather permitting.

podgeandrodge

jumpguy wrote: »

Probably, the ISS was heading west to east (from where the sun sets to the sun rises) and was very bright, so if what you saw was heading in that direction then it was the ISS. If it was a plane the lights would be flashing.

Yep, it was it so. Completely clear sky. Extremely bright from west to east. I was surprised at how clear it was.

Denethor

skelliser wrote: »

ya that was it
i saw the progress re-supply ship as well, just ahead of it but alot dimmer

So that's what the light ahead of the ISS was. Never seen anything like it before, ISS was really bright tonight almost directly overhead here in Kerry.

jumpguy

Funny to think so many people around the country are looking at the exact same satellite passing as you are when you're watching it.

Where exactly in the sky will I see the shuttle btw? Just keep looking west?

just pete

Saw the iss too, Nice and bright over the midlands

bush Baby

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/07/12/space.shuttle.endeavour/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Archive video of Lightning hitting the shuttle launch pad

Ostrom

Is that a recently released module or one about to be picked up?

quietobserver

its been postponed until later on monday cause of lightning strikes, just heard it on the rte1 news there

I saw the ISS alright, very bright. The sky stayed clear just long enough. It looked pretty good through binoculars, but I didn't have time to set up a telescope. I saw the re-supply ship as well.

Fingers crossed that the sky is clear tomorrow night.

Ricky91t

Denethor wrote: »

So that's what the light ahead of the ISS was. Never seen anything like it before, ISS was really bright tonight almost directly overhead here in Kerry.

How did you manage to see it??
I'm in Kerry and i was under loads of cloud!!

just pete

just pete wrote: »

Saw the iss too, Nice and bright over the midlands

And again at 01.39 but not as bright

Calibos

efla wrote: »

Is that a recently released module or one about to be picked up?

As far as I know its a Progress re-supply Vehicle alright but not the one you think it was. It was the last one. ie. A progress arrives and they take the supplies out. They then start filling it with rubbish over the following weeks. When the next Progress re-supply Vehicle is due, they jettison the last progress thats now filled with rubbish. They launch it ahead of the ISS so as not to risk collision with the new one coming up and on a trajectory that will de-orbit it and cause it to burn up in the atmosphere.

So the Progress you saw ahead of the ISS is the Previous rubbish filled one. You should have waited a minute or two and you would have seen the new one on its way to the ISS coming from behind. ie At the moment its behind by about 2 minutes, so just when the ISS disappears in the east, one would see the new Progress in the west. Over the next few nights, you'd see the new progress catching up.

Ostrom

Calibos wrote: »

As far as I know its a Progress re-supply Vehicle alright but not the one you think it was. It was the last one. ie. A progress arrives and they take the supplies out. They then start filling it with rubbish over the following weeks. When the next Progress re-supply Vehicle is due, they jettison the last progress thats now filled with rubbish. They launch it ahead of the ISS so as not to risk collision with the new one coming up and on a trajectory that will de-orbit it and cause it to burn up in the atmosphere.

So the Progress you saw ahead of the ISS is the Previous rubbish filled one. You should have waited a minute or two and you would have seen the new one on its way to the ISS coming from behind. ie At the moment its behind by about 2 minutes, so just when the ISS disappears in the east, one would see the new Progress in the west. Over the next few nights, you'd see the new progress catching up.

I see... Are those recovered on the ground or left to burn?

Beeker

efla wrote: »

I see... Are those recovered on the ground or left to burn?

Burn!

Calibos

Beeker wrote: »

Burn!

No they re-cycle. The normal rubbish goes in the Black Progress, the plastics and cardboard in the Green Progress and the leftovers and human waste in the Brown Progress.

Ostrom

Calibos wrote: »

No they re-cycle. The normal rubbish goes in the Black Progress, the plastics and cardboard in the Green Progress and the leftovers and human waste in the Brown Progress.

Now you're just making fun aren't you....

gary82

Just heard that we can see this so delighted about the delay!

So am I right with this?...

The launch is at 18.51EDT, which is 22:51GMT, so 23.51 now in the summer?

And according to this site which someone linked earlier, it'll be viewable from Galway 8 minutes later at 22:59GMT, so 23.59 summer time for 5minutes.

Time to dust off the tripod and hope the clouds pass! Will post photos if it clears...

Thargor

Would anyone mind just confirming if thats true please^^^

Clear skies again in Galway.

I'll be watching from 23:55 to 00:05, anyway (just to make sure).

Hopefully the weather keeps clear and the launch isn't delayed again.

Thargor

Why does the countdown say 1 hour to go though?

http://countdown.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/cdt/

A few other places Ive seen it down as 11pm aswell

Thargor

Thargor wrote: »

Why does the countdown say 1 hour to go though?

http://countdown.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countdown/cdt/

A few other places Ive seen it down as 11pm aswell

Is that taking account of daylight savings?

Ostrom

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

Is that taking account of daylight savings?

Dont think so, launch blog says one hour to go

efla

efla wrote: »

Dont think so, launch blog says one hour to go

Seems to say it's nearly two hours away here. Were you looking it up on an official blog?

Edit: Sorry, think I might have misunderstood you.

Thargor

Then if you click on the other clock on that page it says 47 minutes away now, Im going to trust the launch blog guy as he said T minus one hour a few minutes ago, how long does it take to get over Ireland and how high will it be in the sky does anyone know? I need to get up on the roof if its low on the horizon.

Ostrom

Looking at this

Says T-54 with 6:51 EDT launch

(1:54 with holding times)

@Thargor

It's pretty confusing isn't it? I'm guessing one is taking account of DL savings, while the other isn't.

I'll be watching this anyway, it even says that it's T- 39 min on the actual clock in the video, too.

@Thargor: I think it takes about 7/8 minutes to come into view in Ireland. And it'll go relatively high above the horizon, too; perhaps 30-45 degrees (I think).