International Space Station Visible This Weekend

mickeyboymel

Just heard an article on the 2fm 6 o clock news,regarding the ISS and Shuttle are visible over the weekend. I can find no information on times or direction to view on the astronomy website,without sigining up for text alerts...anyone know where and when to lookout?

nilhg

Heavens-above will do it all for you, just a quick anonymous registration, add your location and it will give you precise details for loads of satellites

barneysplash

Registered for that site, looks good.

Binoculars at the ready tonight!

Is there anyone on the ISS at the moment?

SuperSean11

nilhg wrote: »

Heavens-above will do it all for you, just a quick anonymous registration, add your location and it will give you precise details for loads of satellites

Thanks very much Getting ready


*Runs around in antisipation

Kevster

Take a look here too: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/index.html

Just select your country and then your local city and you'll get info and times to see the ISS.

Captain Chaos

barneysplash wrote: »

Is there anyone on the ISS at the moment?

The ISS is constantly crewed.

mike65

Sat May 31/11:43 PM

10 above W
23 above S

A bit low to be certain of a viewing I suspect.

Mike.

Flukey

Another great site for tracking the ISS is http://www.n2yo.com as it shows it constantly moving.

mountain

at the risk of multiple postings, (i posted on other thread as well)
just saw at 10.19 shuttle and iss over head in west cork, 2 very bright lights shooting across the sky as if they were chasing each other.

Dotsie~tmp

mountain wrote: »

at the risk of multiple postings, (i posted on other thread as well)
just saw at 10.19 shuttle and iss over head in west cork, 2 very bright lights shooting across the sky as if they were chasing each other.

I believe the two objects close together were the shuttle and its separated fuel tank. It take 3 days to catch up with the ISS.

mountain

that would make sense i suppose, its hardly going to make the iss after 20mins i suppose.

mike65

Flukey, exellent find.

Mike.

feylya

Hmm, I saw something bright and fast last night in the sky. Guess it was the ISS.

SuperSean11

It about to go overhead again.

Flukey

I saw it. Did you see the way it crashed right through Spica?

Captain Chaos

The ISS just went by overhead, the shuttle should be along behind it in 10-15 mins. Haven't seen it with my own eyes in a year, but you can see its got bigger through 12x optics.

Just saw the shuttle now, could just about see it with all the light pollution. My first time to see one of the shuttles, didn't think I'd be able to get it.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

will it be around tomorrow night?

if i saw a binoculaurs in half and stack them on top of each other will that make a rudimentary telescope?

Flukey

Thanks for the tip off Captain Chaos. I've often seen the ISS but that's the first time I've ever seen a shuttle, to my knowledge. It was brief and not very bright, but I saw it.

Flukey

Mordances with the proletariat wrote: »

will it be around tomorrow night?

if i saw a binoculaurs in half and stack them on top of each other will that make a rudimentary telescope?

Check out the sites we mentioned and you'll get the predictions for the ISS and the Shuttle. The ISS certainly will be. As to seeing it, you are better off with the naked eye or perhaps binoculars. They move pretty quickly and you don't see them for very long. They take a few moments to cross the sky, brightening up and then dimming again, narrowing your window for actually seeing them. At this time of year, with the sun not far below the horizon, you'll see plenty of satellites on a clear night. They are like slow-moving stars, never flashing or anything like that and not being particularly bright. The ISS is by far the brightest, given its size. Like the ISS all the satellites brighten a little and then fade and disappear, which is another giveaway to what they are as opposed to standard aircraft.

Flukey

The Shuttle will make a brief pass at 23:32:20 tomorrow night, rising in the west and heading towards the southeast. It'll pass again at about 23:47 the following night. There will be another pass on Monday morning at about 1:08am, but very brief so the 23:32 one will be better.

There'll be another ISS pass at about 1:17 tonight and one at about 22:28 tomorrow night.

Flukey

The 1:17 pass was just that bit too far south of us to be seen. Still a few to look forward to in the coming nights.

ronbyrne2005

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CzqOXxPc04

BFassassin

Brilliant video. I thought I saw it last night as well but it wasnt moving so it obviously wasnt it. What I saw looked to be flashing but it never really moved all night. About 2-3 hours while I was watching it. I am in Monaghan so i'm probably a bit too far north to see it properly. Ill be out again tonight and hopefully the skies will be clear again.
Will we be able to see the shuttle tonight or is it just the ISS that is visable?

Helix

about 4.35am this morning, maybe 110 degrees clockwise from the moon, in what i would assume was a west/north westerly direction there was what appeared to be a bright star but with no other stars visible in the sky because it was bright, i reckoned it might have been something like the iss or a planet

im not hugely knowledgable about this end of things, but very curious as to what i was looking at

anyone know for defo?

Captain Chaos

BFassassin wrote: »

Brilliant video. I thought I saw it last night as well but it wasnt moving so it obviously wasnt it. What I saw looked to be flashing but it never really moved all night. About 2-3 hours while I was watching it. I am in Monaghan so i'm probably a bit too far north to see it properly. Ill be out again tonight and hopefully the skies will be clear again.
Will we be able to see the shuttle tonight or is it just the ISS that is visable?

If you can see the ISS the shuttle should also be visible as its chasing the ISS in the same orbit but it will be trailling alot closer tonight, maybe just 5mins behind it. It will be docking with the ISS on Monday so tonight will probably be the last chance to catch the shuttle by itself.

BFassassin

Thanks captain chaos.
I'll be out tonight and hopefully see something.

Flukey

Around 10:30 tonight, both will be going past within a few minutes of each other. Get outside a few minutes before that. Face south, and keep your eyes to the west as they will be coming from that direction. The ISS will be first, and the brighter of the two. Discovery should be about 2 minutes after it, following a very similar course. It won't be as bright. They'll both pass through Leo, very close to Regulus and Saturn.

BFassassin

Its looking really cloudy here atm so it might be really hard to see it.

Flukey

All you need is a break in the clouds at the right moment, and you could see it. It was hazy last night, but I saw them both. Even if it is a bit cloudy looking go out and have a look anyway. You've nothing to lose and you might be lucky.

Hugh_C

just saw it (ISS?) over Dublin, very clear and very fast

Mothman

Just got to see it between the breaks in cloud in Wicklow

Flukey

It was a bit cloudy and still a bit bright, but I just saw both of them.

rovers2001

Just seen the iss and space shuttle following behind through broken cloud over dublin fascinating stuff.

Flukey

We'll have another chance to see both at about 6 minutes past midnight. Hopefully it will be clearer by then.

rovers2001

Sure might as well stay up no work tomorow:) and have a look.

Papercut

Flukey wrote: »

We'll have another chance to see both at about 6 minutes past midnight. Hopefully it will be clearer by then.

Do you know what direction in the sky it'll be in exactly?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

got out ten minutes late for it, but had a look anyway.. no joy. it occured to me though that I don't have a clue what i'm looking for, but it's not going to be a big issue anyway because there's a huge cloud bank moving in from the north.
goodbye clear sky.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

-0.1 00:06:30 10 WSW 00:07:52 13 SW 00:07:52 13 SW

from http://www.heavens-above.com/



is that entering from the west south west, and exiting in south west?

BFassassin

I saw one of them passing over. I got a video of it which shows just how fast its moving. I didnt realise it was coming back over at midnight but ill be back out again. Hopefully it will still be clear andd a bit darker to make it easier to see. Will it still be in the same area of sky or will it be in a completely different place?
Higher or lower maybe?

skelliser

begins in the south western part of the sky moving from west to east, next pass at 6 minutes past midnight

Mint Sauce

was just out side trying to get my bearings, just incase i was still awake later, was sure i was faceing the right direction, was going by the sun set, had my GPS watch out with me to verify, but it seemed less sure, kept jumping from one direction to another

although may be a bit to much light polution near me

Flukey

It will enter from the WSW, be highest in the SW and leave towards the SW. It will be a bit harder to see this time, as it will be further south of us and cross less of the sky as we see it. A good clear view of the horizon would be best.

BFassassin

I might not see it then. Not a very clear view of the horizon where I am but ill still try.
Its really interesting to see them.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

pretty clear view of the horizon here, I'll try find the digital camera and take some ufo style footage

Flukey

The next one won't be as high as the earlier pass. That one was quite high, but the next will be lower. If you are looking at the prediction sites, you'll see the height shown. 90° would be directly overhead. The earlier one was at 38° whereas the next will only be about 12°. A lower pass also means that it won't be in the sky for as long. The ISS pass tomorrow night, at about 22:53 will be about 23°. The passes always come from the western part of the sky heading generally southeastwards, or if you prefer off the north Atlantic and heading towards Europe and down towards the Mediterranean. Sometimes they are much further south, down towards Spain or the north of Africa. They are the ones that are harder to see, like the later one will be.

CO19

What direction do you look in if you're in south Dublin ??

Flukey

Southwesterly. This pass will be harder to see. The earlier one was better and so will tomorrow night's, though not as good as the one earlier.

BFassassin

I saw both of them this time around. The ISS was a lot brighter than the shuttle. The shuttle was moving much faster though. They were both gone within 5 mins of first site.

Flukey

No joy this time. I didn't really expect it, given the path of the pass this time. 22:53, Monday night. Set your alarms or whatever for a few minutes before that. You'll have a better chance, weather permitting of course.

rovers2001

I seen the iss obviously the brighter as its bigger didnt spot shuttle very far south of dublin at approx 00.07am exciting stuff great to have a bit of weather to see these things normally never can when there is anything to view in the night sky.some great info there flukey fair play.

Flukey

The dates, times, heights etc. are all available from Heavens Above and n2yo.com so just look there. Once they know your location you'll get the information you need. N2yo can detect it from your IP address and with Heavens Above you just have to put in your location. There will be a number of chances to see them this week. After Monday the two will be together, which means that they may be slightly brighter under the right conditions. So keep watching.