ISS Pass March 14, 2007

[sheeny]

Another heads up guys...

Al.

[h0ughy]

ta, now make the cloud go away!

[Rob_K]

What goes on Al? Heavens Above doesn't show this pass - for 14 March it shows 1 1/2 hours later, on a track much further south (way south of Tassie). Mag 2.3 from here (which is way south of you) and max alt 13 degrees. Hope your track is right - it should go straight over the top of me, which would be great!

Cheers -

[sheeny]

:shrug:
Dunno Rob. I guess we'll see. I update the TLE's in Orbitron every time I run it. It wouldn't be the first time I've done something wrong, but I can't see it at the moment...

Al.

[sheeny]

Still don't know what's going on there Rob. I just updated my TLE's again in Orbitron and it still says there's a good pass tonight, and I checked Heavens-Above as well and no mention...:shrug:.

It looks like fantastic weather here, so I'm planning to take the scope out anyway, so I guess I'll just have a look and see what the go is...

There's only 3 possibilities: it doesn't happen, it happens and I miss it or it happens and I see it...:P

Al.

[netwolf]

Just saw something pass through orion while I was alignig the scope. Called the wife out and as we watched it flared brightly then dimed out. It flared right near the middle of the orion belt.

Was it ISS.
Wohoooooo never saw anything like it in my life. This is the second satelite type object I have seen drift through orion while just setting up the scope.

Edit cancel that think it was just an iridium flare, oddly it moved in a line from the horizon towards the zeneth.

Regards

[sheeny]

The ISS pass was as predicted in Orbitron. The pass was not shown on Heavens-Above because the sun was not more than 10 degrees below the horizon, so the sky was still relatively bright.

We picked up the pass at close to 40 degree elevation, and it was quite bright (still impressive) but at a quick look at my photos I can't pick a trail:(. I took a couple of photos prior to visually finding it using the realtime azimuth and elevation figures from Orbitron to guide the camera as well. I'll have to have a play in PS CS2 to see if I can extract any data or not. It doesn't look promising at this stage though... the sky was too bright to provide any contrast to the trail...:rolleyes:

We also just happened to be looking at the horizon low in the SW when the ISS returned later at about 21:00. I quickly fired up Orbitron to confirm it was the ISS again.

Fahim, what you describe sounds like an Iridium Flare most likely. Since I don't know where you were I can't say if it was the ISS or not. The ISS does occasionally flare though.

Al.

[Rob_K]

Great Al! Glad you solved the mystery. I missed the first but saw the second.

Cheers -

[Stew]

it wass iss it skimmed orion heading east,i use nova and sattrak,they are never wrong,i took a pic with my new canon s3is,will post it later,no detail just streak in sky near orion