Shuttle Launch Visible from Ireland Tonight

Bodan

celticsibh wrote: »

Seen as the SS is travelling faster than the ISS to catch up with it, obviously the time in between will get shorter and shorter, so that's why it was around a little quicker.

I think its the other way around, the shuttle is in front of the ISS and its going to slow down over the next day or two until they meet up.

BlackandGold

efla wrote: »

They are 'fixed' in orbit around earth. The shuttle speeds around earth at a relatively constant altitude of 350km. The ISS passes within view about twice per day, check out wiki for some basic info, and the nasa website. The shuttle needs to trail behind the ISS for a few hours before docking, and by using the predictions for ISS viewing, we may also get lucky and see the shuttle trailing faintly behind.

Go here and watch the map as it updates to get some sense of how it moves

Thank you. Feel it's going a bit above my head! Looked up the ISS on Wiki, and also checked out NASA website. I'm also tracking the shuttle.

Because the earth is round - they're "rocketing" [parden the pun!] around the earth and as the SS is faster it's supposed to...attach/land on the ISS?? So they both keep moving?

Ostrom

BlackandGold wrote: »

Thank you. Feel it's going a bit above my head! Looked up the ISS on Wiki, and also checked out NASA website. I'm also tracking the shuttle.

Because the earth is round - they're "rocketing" [parden the pun!] around the earth and as the SS is faster it's supposed to...attach/land on the ISS?? So they both keep moving?

The shuttle orbiter is able to adjust its course (as is the ISS, but it isnt moved during docking, apart from an altitude correction performed before the shuttle launch), and to speed up.

It trails behind the ISS to line up directly, inching closer to dock on Friday afternoon

Ricky91t

It seems the nasa tracking thing is messing up abit the SS has just jumped from being over south america(more over the ocean) to below austrailia and the ISS has stayed on route


Edit:And the rockets declined 170km????Is mine messing up?

Edit 2:Refreshed a few times,Ok now

Hartyk87

Calibos wrote: »

Not a shooting star with a tail. But it'll look like a pair or bright stars moving across the southern sky west to east quite fast. Not sure if one will be able to detect the orange tint of the jettisoned main fuel tank with the naked eye, but the orange colour should be visible in Binoculars.

The ISS pass before hand will be higher in the sky nearly over head travelling from west to east and that should be really bright. If you remember the really bright star in the west last Christmas which was actually the Planet Venus or if you have recently seen a really bright star in the South east in the wee hours on your way home from the pub which is actually the Planet Jupiter, well then that will give you an idea of how bright the ISS passing overhead will be. The Shuttle and Fuel Tank will be a bit dimmer than that though.

Heres a vid of the last time a shuttle launch and fuel tank was visible from Ireland.

I was in tramore in waterford earlier and i saw that passing at aprox 23.30 was that the ISS??

darragh o meara

Saw it myself and boy were they moving. Was delighted to see it first hand, first time I ever saw one

Calibos

Hartyk87 wrote: »

I was in tramore in waterford earlier and i saw that passing at aprox 23.30 was that the ISS??

If you saw two very bright lights moving really fast across the sky, the top one white and the bottom one orange in colour and if this was about 11:20pm, then what you saw was the space shuttle 18 minutes after it launched in Florida USA and only minutes after jettisoning the main Fuel Tank. Bright white light was the Shuttle and the Orange light was the Fuel tank.

However, if you saw a single white light moving across the sky at 11:40pm then what you saw was the International Space Station which is in fact the Space shuttles ultimate destination. It'll arrive on Friday night, and we will see the shuttle chasing the International space station tomorrow night.

I just re-read the post of mine you qouted from the other day. I said in that post that it would be dimmer than the ISS and we probably would only be able to see the orange colour in Binoculars. Boy was I wrong!! It was mad bright,both the shuttle and the Fuel tank. And the orange colour of the fuel tank was easily visible to the naked eye. I was totally suprised by the brightness of it. Twas as bright as plane on approach with its headlights on. Amazing!

Calibos

Gremlin wrote: »

Amazing sight. Now the second time I've seen this. (May 2008 was the first)

Here's my short video of proceedings. Great to see so many ppl got to see it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-9Xp9Aa8PA

Posted it already for you Dave a few pages back. Hope you don't mind.

Sponge Bob

Sponge Bob wrote: »

The Okean O Rocket used to flash like mad some years back , it was tumbling rapidly in space . Scared the bejaysus out of some people with it a few times .

Yah I remember that.

This was different, though. It flashed once every 2/3 seconds. It was very very dim, and was moving SW to NE. I know for a fact it wasn't an aeroplane (I've been into astronomy long enough to know). Very odd, I've never seen anything like it before.

All I can think of that it could have been is a satellite in a spin?

Amalgam

refusetolose wrote: »

is it possible to film the fuel tanks splashin into the ocean?

Here's one from a different launch refusetolose. This clip is an odd one, surreal and strangely calming, considering the amount of energy used up in the event.

A camera bolted to one of the solid rocket boosters. Up and down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uk_viH4Unw

I won't embed the clip as it's OT to the event this evening.

URL EDITED (AGAIN!)

refusetolose

Amalgam wrote: »

Here's one from a different launch refusetolose. This clip is an odd one, surreal and strangely calming, considering the amount of energy used up in the event.

A camera bolted to one of the solid rocket boosters. Up and down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjEIBCN5ll

I won't embed the clip as it's OT to the event this evening.

thanks man but the link don't work ,i get "The URL contained a malformed video ID" ,would love to see it,ill have a search

Calibos

Heres a great video shot by IFAS' Frank Ryan Jr. This dude has gotten some beautiful pics printed in Sky at Night mag amongst many others.

refusetolose

some pics of launch debris here ... http://spaceflightnow.com/shuttle/sts127/090715gallery/

phonypony

my shakey video with live comms on the scanner http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A4Owaqe8Q4 Heard clear comms for a good 5 minutes and broken for a few minutes before and after

jumpguy

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

Yah I remember that.

This was different, though. It flashed once every 2/3 seconds. It was very very dim, and was moving SW to NE. I know for a fact it wasn't an aeroplane (I've been into astronomy long enough to know). Very odd, I've never seen anything like it before.

All I can think of that it could have been is a satellite in a spin?

More than likely a slowly tumbling satellite I'd say, probably a rocket stage. How bright was it?

Amalgam

Edited, found a longer version, the sound is eerie.

Calibos

phonypony wrote: »

my shakey video with live comms on the scanner http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A4Owaqe8Q4 Heard clear comms for a good 5 minutes and broken for a few minutes before and after

Woah!! Nice one Phonypony!! Between some of the other vids posted with stirring music or with excited banter in the background, this one completes the picture of the event. Actual shuttle coms as it was passing over us. Cool As!!:D

refusetolose

Amalgam wrote: »

Edited, found a longer version, the sound is eerie.

nice one,just looking now....

jumpguy

jumpguy wrote: »

More than likely a slowly tumbling satellite I'd say, probably a rocket stage. How bright was it?

Very dim, I'd hazard a guess at mag. ~4. It must have been a tumbling satellite. Interesting! I've never seen one of them before (if that's what it was, of course).

jumpguy

Amalgam wrote: »

Edited, found a longer version, the sound is eerie.

I found that extremely relaxing for some reason. It was cool to see what it'd be like faling from that height...

EDIT to Jammydodger: Nor have I! But they're are loads of booster passes every night that I CBA looking at (mag is too low) especially from Cosmos rockets (lazy Russians leaving their space debris :P). There was bound to be a spinning one, and I don't know if Heavens-Above would list spinning ones.

I saw both earlier the first time they passed, but I went out again about 00.50 to try and catch them again. Unfortunately, I saw nothing. I was expecting the ISS about 01.25, and waited until just after half. I was about to give up and head back inside when I noticed something in the sky.

At approx. 01.31 I saw something similar to the ISS, but higher up and travelling in a different direction than earlier. It was like a star, but travelling nearly a fast as the Shuttle was earlier. It was coming from the south east heading to the north west. I called my dad and he also saw it. It went over our house and by the time we got from the back garden, out to the front we had lost it. It did not travel in a direct line, it slightly zig zagged sporadically, and sped up and slowed down in bursts.

Anyone else see this, or have any idea what it might have been? The skies were perfectly clear here, so it stuck out and was easy to see, yet I did not see the shuttle or the ISS the second time around.

PS I'm in Dublin now, not Cork.

jumpguy

Deleted User wrote: »

At approx. 01.31 I saw something similar to the ISS, but higher up and travelling in a different direction than earlier. It was like a star, but travelling nearly a fast as the Shuttle was earlier. It was coming from the south east heading to the north west. I called my dad and he also saw it. It went over our house and by the time we got from the back garden, out to the front we had lost it. It did not travel in a direct line, it slightly zig zagged sporadically, and sped up and slowed down in bursts.

It may well have been one of the many 1000's of other functional and non-functional satellites in the sky. Or a meteorite (but it wouldn't be visible for long). However, I can't really think of why it may zig-zag. Perhaps your eyes were playing tricks on you, or it had something to do with the atmospheric distortion (was it near the horizon or above your head?) nor why it'd have sped up and slowed down.

kraggy

Hey guys, can someone explain the distance between the shuttle and the external tanks? With the huge distance between them that I saw, you'd imagine they were just a few miles away from where I was standing.

Had the tanks been released by the time it passed over Ireland?

edit: just watched youtube vid of launch. the external tanks/solid rocket boosters were released well before it was seen from Ireland. Did they appear proximate to each other due to the distance?

Captain Chaos

kraggy wrote: »

Had the tanks been released by the time it passed over Ireland?

Look back through the thread, a good few vids taken in Ireland with the tank in formation with the shuttle, the tank was punched off over the mid Atlantic, about 5-6mins after take off. The tank follows the shuttle for 1 or 2 orbits depending on the flight profile before burning up in the atmosphere.

Beeker

kraggy wrote: »

Hey guys, can someone explain the distance between the shuttle and the external tanks? With the huge distance between them that I saw, you'd imagine they were just a few miles away from where I was standing.

Had the tanks been released by the time it passed over Ireland?

edit: just watched youtube vid of launch. the external tanks/solid rocket boosters were released well before it was seen from Ireland. Did they appear proximate to each other due to the distance?

Yeah tank seperates over the Atlantic at 8min 40 sec after launch and completes a half orbit burning up over the Indian ocean. By the time we saw them pass over the tank would have only been a few miles from the Shuttle.

Beeker

I have seen a lot of Shuttle and ISS passes over Ireland but last night was someting else. What a sight!

fryup

phonypony wrote: »

my shakey video with live comms on the scanner http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A4Owaqe8Q4 Heard clear comms for a good 5 minutes and broken for a few minutes before and after

how did you manage to pick up the commentary??

Linguo

We saw debris, is it dangerous or a normal occurence??

kleefarr

To get info on the ISS

Click you location on this map .... MAP

Then click SUBMIT at the bottom.

This will take you to another page were you can click on the 10 day prediction for the ISS location. Its the first link under the Satellites section on the left.

Take an hour off as their clock is one hour ahead.

Time on web site here.. CLOCK

Great seeing the Shuttle and tanks last night, followed 20 mins later by the ISS. Clear as anything.