Space Station Spotting
From Bwtm
The International Space Station (ISS) is a manned research space facility that is being assembled in orbit around the Earth.
It's orbit is about 220 miles above the Earth. It is easily visible when it passes overhead a just before sunrise or just after sunset.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station
Contents |
Sighting opportunities
http://esa.heavens-above.com/esa/iss_step1.asp
http://esa.heavens-above.com/esa/iss_step1_3.asp?CountryID=US
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/skywatch.cgi?country=United+States
Journal
August 07, 2008
8:53. 87deg max. very bright! nice!
June 09, 2008
8:20, 29deg max. Very nice, long and low.
June 08, 2008
9:33, 56deg. Really nice, very bright with a bright crescent Moon. Was almost directly overhead when it disappeared into the shadow.
December 01, 2007
5:49, 31deg, beautiful!
August 2, 2007
9:00pm, 5 minutes, 55deg max elevation. another beautiful sighting!
August 1, 2007
8:38pm, 5 minutes, 29deg max elevation. a beautiful sighting
December 15, 2006
This looked like a perfect sighting opportunity, but, a storm is coming in and cloud cover was 100%.
December 14, 2006
Used the sky chart from ESA. I was a little late picking up the station but it followed the track on the chart and disappeared right one time. A nice sighting, low along the southern sky.
December 09, 2006
Very nice sighting this morning. Appeared low in the Southwest at 5:48am, moving toward the south behind low clouds.
December 08, 2006
I missed seeing the station this morning (5:24am) but did see another meteorite, trajectory straight down, to the west of my location.
December 06, 2006
Very pretty this morning. Rose in the NW at 6:12am close to the almost full moon. Crossed almost right overhead.
December 05, 2006
Great transit this morning starting at 5:48am reaching a max elevation of 32 degrees. Also saw two meteorites; very fast moving straight down towards and near the northern horizon.
Satellite Spotters Glimpse Secrets, and Tell Them
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/science/space/05spotters.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin
news
This NASA Astronaut Was 'Too Busy to Be Scared'. Whitson: We started noticing some unusual motion. I felt like I was being thrown into my seat, but it's hard to tell— your sensations after six months of zero gravity are pretty questionable. Then the automatic system commanded a ballistic entry, and the gs started building up very quickly. I saw 8.2 gs on the meter. Wired: Were you scared? Whitson: No. I was too busy to be scared. I knew what was happening was not strictly nominal, but we train for these scenarios. Wired: Uh-huh. You astronauts always say that. http://www.wired.com/science/space/magazine/16-08/st_qa
Toilet trouble for space station. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7425180.stm
Lexus of space station labs poised for launch. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080526/D90TD73G0.html
links
What You Don't Know About Living in Space. As Astronauts Begin Spacewalks, a Few Things of Note About Life in Space. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Story?id=4450259&page=1
A Space Robot With Arms to Make R2D2 Jealous. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/science/space/11robo.html?ref=space
Scale Model Drawing Package http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/models/index.html