Space Station Spotting

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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

September 07, 2009

very nice pass, the sky was still light at 7:20pm, but the station was very bright and Jupiter was also visible.

September 06, 2009

another nice pass, went right past the North Star.

January 17, 2009

great sighting today and Thursday. But, the time on the esa chart was early.

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

star track for Friday, December 15, 2006
Enlarge
star track for Friday, 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

http://galaxypix.com/

http://satobs.org/

news

Evolution of the International Space Station http://i.usatoday.net/tech/graphics/iss_timeline/flash.htm

Shuttle Dodges Space Junk Risk. http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/04/spacedebris-1.html

Shuttle and space station dodge debris. A piece of space junk is approaching their orbit, so the shuttle powers the space station out of the way. Ten days ago, another piece of junk menaced the station. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-space-station23-2009mar23,0,7319512.story

Space shuttle moved to launch pad as rescue ship. In an unprecedented step, a space shuttle was moved to the launch pad Friday for a trip NASA hopes it will never make - a rescue mission. The shuttle Endeavour is on standby in case the seven astronauts who go up on Atlantis next month need a safer ride home. Atlantis and its crew are headed into space for one last repair job on the 18-year-old Hubble Space Telescope. It's a venture that was canceled when first proposed a few years ago because it was considered too dangerous. The risk is this: If Atlantis suffers serious damage during launch or in flight, the astronauts will not be at the international space station, where they could take refuge for weeks while awaiting a ride home. They would be stranded on their spacecraft at the Hubble, where NASA estimates they could stay alive for 25 days. Air would be the first to go. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080920/D93A9SEG0.html

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

Space Station Gallery

List of meteor showers