Shuttle Launch Visible from Ireland Tonight

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

Yah, if the pass is visible tonight (and it might be just about), it'll be extremely low relative the the horizon.

Calibos wrote: »

Phew!! Finally caught up with the last page in the thread!!

I'd like to appologise again to the guys in the STS 127 - Endeavour thread who where also talking about tonights events in their thread at the weekend. I just thought that the thread title was unlikely to pique the interest of other boardsies. A nice catchy title like "Shuttle Launce Visible from Ireland Tonight" really got the punters in didn't it. Has to be a record for the astronomy forum.

I actually heard about this first over on the IFAS (Irish Federation of Astronomical Soceities) forum. Anyone with an interest in Astronomy should pop over there too.

Hopefully events like tonights will get more people looking up at the sky. Manmade objects wizzing overhead are pretty amazing but theres a lot of 'Natural' cool stuff up there too. There is a heck of a lot of cool things to see even in a small pair of cheap binoculars. At the moment one of the coolest things visible is the planet Jupiter in the Southern sky. (The really bright 'Star') Visible after Midnight. One has to stay up late to see it at the moment but in the coming weeks and month or two it'll be visible much earlier. Even the smallest Cheapest pair of Binoculars will show a bright disc with several of Jupiters Moons visible in a line beside the planet.

But back to tonights events...I am still buzzing. I think the tension about the weather in Florida and the previous Mission scrubs never mind our weather made it all the more exciting. Just in time I heard that Sky News were showing the launch with Nasa commentary so I got to watch it on the 40" plasma with the surround sound turned up instead of in a little window on the PC. Talk about goosebumps. The 'Irish' angle, the fact that we would see it live...for real....only minutes later made the launch even more special to watch.

Did I mention I got amazingly lucky just before when I went out back to see if their were any Noticulent Clouds and saw a Mag -8 Iridium flare!

I got incredibly lucky again that the clouds just cleared in time. Got to see 3/4 of the flyover. OMG, I couldn't believe how bright the Shuttle and the fuel tank were. Much brighter than the ISS. I couldn't believe how fast they were. I couldn't beleive how Orange the fuel tank was.

Spectacular!! . The ISS passes before and after were amazing too. The station is getting so big now that the shape of the big solar panels is starting to be discernable in Bino's now.....and its 400 miles up!!

What a night and I am so happy that so many people got to see this event as a result of this thread!!

-JammyDodger- wrote: »

Here's a website that will allow you to follow the progress of the Shuttle relative to the ISS.

If you use this site, you can estimate when the Shuttle will pass, because you'll know when the ISS passes. That's what I do, anyway.