space station

..MD..

..MD..

Helen Shapiro
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just watched the space station pass over ludlow ... whoo that thing is moving fast..

looks just like a shooting star .. so anyoe lookning to get a star trail tonights the night if you can see it

it was clear he

md:thumbs:
 
I have seen it before a few times, and saw a white light slowly going across the sky last night so I thought that it must be it.
 
If you subscribe (free) to Calsky.com and enter your location you
can receive email alerts when it's visible in your area :)
 
Rob_W said:
Not seen it but was looking on here last night to try and figure out if and when it would come over... :thinking:

http://www.heavens-above.com/
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Gets better when a shuttle is sent up to dock with it.
Two bright objects close together can be seen when docking is near and the whole thing is brighter when docked.
 
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alanwjones said:
The shuttle and spacestation are docked presently, they will undock on Saturday , and will then be seen as two seperate lights @ 1 minute apart,
For tracking info see :-

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/skywatch.cgi?country=United+Kingdom
also :-

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/

Hope this helps, Alan.
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I like the heavensabove site. The data is specific to your location.

Very frustrating activity. Weather rarely is favourable.
 
If you subscribe to @jodrellbank on twitter they tell you what you can see and where, they have more specific news feeds like @overmanchester too.
 
Check out the iridium flares on heavens-above too, they are cool as well and are often brigther then the ISS but I have to admit the space station is very cool.
Shame about the cloud at the moment......
 
It does move very fast - a big H in the sky...
 
Woodsie said:
Check out the iridium flares on heavens-above too, they are cool as well and are often brigther then the ISS but I have to admit the space station is very cool.
Shame about the cloud at the moment......
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Yes - watched them a few times. Some are exceptionally bright.
 
Dangermouse1964 said:
any chance of seeing it over lincs
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Better than up here. It'll have a higher elevation.

Go to www.heavensabove.com.
Register and put your town/village in then check for ISS visible passes.

Usually visible several times per day for several days on the trot then no visible passes for several days. The pattern continues like that.

The data will tell you the direction and elevation that the ISS appears from and where it will disappear.
It's always dead on time.
Helps if you have a clear view.
 
They've just attached a couple more solar panels so it's probably got a bit brighter. It's an amazing sight to watch. If you have a decent pair of binoculars it's worth having a look at it through them, I've seen some shape. I'm planning on trying (and it's going to be damnably hard) to use my 1300mm scope, with a webcam (crop factor of 8.5) to get a picture of the ISS one night. (effectively 11m focal length panning on a target 300 miles up, travelling at 17000 mph).. I suspect it's going to take quite a few tries, but if I get any success I'll post the image up.

Danny, There's a lot of bright objects drifting about up there. I was imaging some galaxies in Leo the other night and in a 30 minute period, when I wasn't actively looking, I saw 4 pass overhead.

Arclight, you get used to it (not!!!).

Woodsie, I've just posted an Iridium flare image.
 
dont they say it will be visible to the naked eye when its completed?
 
Dom_Cabarete said:
dont they say it will be visible to the naked eye when its completed?
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It is already easily visible to the naked eye. Probably the brightest object in the night sky apart from the moon.

Heavens aabove website seems to be down just now.
 
I'm not sure you'll be able to see the structure naked eye, it's a long way away, unless of course it gets a lot bigger.

In terms of hot bright it is, it's normally about magnitude -2 on a pass, Sirius the brightest star in the night sky is Mag -1.5, Venus is about Mag -4, full moon Mag -12 and the sun Mag -26 for a rough idea of scale.
 
How exciting - I've got a good chance of a sighting over the next few days so will now try to work out where to look :thinking:
 
The passes are always west to east and it's quite easy to spot.
 
jgs001 said:
I'm not sure you'll be able to see the structure naked eye, it's a long way away, unless of course it gets a lot bigger.

In terms of hot bright it is, it's normally about magnitude -2 on a pass, Sirius the brightest star in the night sky is Mag -1.5, Venus is about Mag -4, full moon Mag -12 and the sun Mag -26 for a rough idea of scale.
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i really need to do some learning...:thinking:
 
You can make out its shape when it crosses the moon :)
 
i think im going to spend an hour or two on heavens above tonight so i can come back tommorow and pretend i know what im talking about :lol:
 
Dangermouse1964 said:
any chance of seeing it over lincs
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Date Mag Starts Max. altitude Ends
Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.
25 Mar -1.2 19:33:21 10 WSW 19:36:12 32 S 19:38:26 12 SE
25 Mar 0.2 21:08:56 10 WSW 21:10:04 15 SW 21:10:04 15 SW
26 Mar -0.7 20:00:22 10 WSW 20:02:51 24 SSW 20:04:27 16 SSE
27 Mar 0.1 20:27:40 10 WSW 20:29:29 15 SSW 20:30:26 13 S
28 Mar -0.4 19:18:57 10 WSW 19:21:23 23 SSW 19:23:48 10 SE
29 Mar 0.3 20:46:17 10 WSW 20:47:57 14 SSW 20:49:36 10 S

That's the predictions for my locus.
The headers have copied a bit out of sync with the data,
but you can see that tonight at 1933 and 21 secs it will appear from West South West at an elevation of 10°.
At 1936 and 12 secs it will be at max elevation of 32° in the South.
It will disappear in the South East at 1938 and 26 secs.
Entire pass takes 5 mins.
 
Never realised just how much difference the location in the country makes... here's the prediction for that same first pass for west sussex

25 Mar -2.4 19:33:54 10 W 19:36:51 90 S 19:38:26 25 E

Peak is directly overhead. Lincs I guess will be somewhere in between.

If you click on the date for that pass, it'll take you to more detail for that pass, including a star chart... and more information about the pass.

Rises above horizon 19:31:54 0° 280° (W ) 2,168
Reaches 10° altitude 19:33:54 10° 280° (W ) 1,326
Maximum altitude 19:36:51 89° 270° (W ) 357
Enters shadow 19:38:27 25° 101° (E ) 769

It's generally accepted that a minimum altitude of 10 degrees is needed as below this there's too much atmosphere and muck to look through, so you won't see much anyway.
 
once again :lol:

Can someone just tell me were to look? I live in bournemouth, keep it simple for my tiny brain :)
 
Dom, about 19:33, look west. Watch for a moving bright spot. It'll probably appear to go almost straight up, over your head and off to the east again. The bearings for me, will be very similar to you, I'm not that much further north.
 
jgs001 said:
Dom, about 19:33, look west. Watch for a moving bright spot. It'll probably appear to go almost straight up, over your head and off to the east again. The bearings for me, will be very similar to you, I'm not that much further north.
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cheers john :thumbs:
 
Dom_Cabarete said:
then you realize were both going to look stupid when im told im talking absolute rubbish :lol:
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If we both agree with each other and talk the same 'twaddle' then the 'experts' might begin to doubt themselves and actually believe what we are saying haha :naughty:
 
There's a lot of very experienced people on there and the other Astro forum I frequent. The astro images some of these guys produce make my feeble efforts look like stick drawings, but that's fine. I've not been at it that long, and they've been at it years and have a lot more experience and expensive dedicated kit to work with. My entire Astro rig cost less than one of the cameras they use as an example.
 
rubber duck said:
If we both agree with each other and talk the same 'twaddle' then the 'experts' might begin to doubt themselves and actually believe what we are saying haha :naughty:
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i'll take your word for it :naughty:
 
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