ISS Heads Up: February 24 and 26 evenings.

[sheeny]

Guys,

A couple of favourable ISS passes coming up!

Both should be good for Newcastle Sydney and Wollongong and areas to the north west of there.:)

Al.

[RB]

Onyah Al

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[citivolus]

Is this based on the new post boost elements? Although I guess that would impact timing more than positioning.

Regards,
Eric

[RB]

I'm not sure what that is Eric but I just double checked using the latest version (v3.71) and data and it's the same.

:shrug:

[citivolus]

What is the epoch of your data? I think the latest available is 2008-02-18 05:59:58. One of those passes hits 89.2 degrees elevation in Sydney, the other 81.

Regards,
Eric

[OneOfOne]

Heavens Above shows a couple of bright passes (-2.4) on the 25 and 27 for Melbourne at a more "civilised" time of around 9:20 and 8:30. By 6am I am already getting ready for work :(

Must put it in my calendar....haven't seen the space station or even a flare for months.

[iceman]

I've been waiting for another good ISS pass since late December.. every pass since then has been clouded out for me.

Looking forward to the ones this week.. hopefully the bright moon and dark clouds don't interfere.

[sheeny]

Eric,

I always update the elements immediately prior to running a prediction. The difference you may be seeing is that the results are for Oberon not Sydney, perhaps:shrug:.

Al.

[citivolus]

I realised after making a long post that your predictions were centred on Oberon, and promptly deleted that post, leaving the other one in its place. I felt just a tad silly :)

Regards,
Eric

[sheeny]

Ahh, that' OK mate! I that's the silliest thing you've done for a while you're doing OK!;)

Al.

[Astro78]

Already looking forwards to any members pics of the ISS!

[sheeny]

Don't forget tonight's pass of the ISS should be very close to directly over head in Sydney! The skies are clear here, so even though I feel like death warmed up, I'm going to try to venture out with the camera... don't think I'll set up the scope though.:sadeyes: (It's amazing how much that looks like I feel!:))

Tomorrow night should be a ripper for Adelaide and Melbourne!

In the evening of the 26th is another great one for Sydney and surrounds.

The 27th and 28th evening passes are good for Melbourne and Tassie.

Check with Orbitron or Heavens-above for accurate info for your location.

Enjoy,

Al.

[iceman]

Cheers Al, scope is already setup but it's going to be a difficult one to capture on the dob - so close to overhead in dobsonians hole!

[sheeny]

Not much better on an EQ mount, Mike. Trying to manage a meridian flip right when the ISS is at it's closest and fastest!

Al.

[Matty P]

Thanks for the remider Al, I almst forgot. :doh:

I just set up the scope under clear skies for the passing. Can't wait. :D

[iceman]

Looks like clouds for the pass in 2 days time, so hopefully this one remains clear. I see clouds building in the east already and there's still 1.5 hours to go :(

[norm]

Only managed to see glimpses of it as it cut thru the clouds at close to zenith. Expected rain tomorrow in Sydney and all week, so not looking promising. 26th if clearer should be good - -2.4 mag. Finger x:prey:

Tried to drag the other 1/2 out, but Grey's Anatomy too important!:screwy:

[iceman]

Yeh no good here either.. got glimpses through the clouds and caught about 5 frames on avi, but all of them blurred.

[Meadehead]

It was a great sighting here and as predicted:thumbsup: I managed to drag the other half out and she spotted it before I did. It was exciting!:D

[RB]

We had clear skies here.
I managed to get a nice long exposure shot which I've posted in the thread below.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=29037

[sheeny]

Perfect conditions here. Sadly less than perfect condition that I'm in though, so nothing too ambitious tonight. Just some static widefield shots.

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=29038

Very bright pass though.

Al.

[Domol]

Saw ISS earlier this evening sailing right over Melbourne! Best one i've seen in a long time. Timing was spot on using heavens-above.com

[Tamtarn]

Clear dark skies out here tonight til the moon rose. Luckily saw ISS somewhere around 9.15-9.30pm (didn't have a watch on).

Moving from NW eventually traveling directly overhead towards the SE it was extremely bright. I would say equally as bright and seemed almost as large as Venus it eventually faded as it travelled towards the horizon.

It was spectacular :D

Barb

[desler]

I just checked Heavens Above re IIS.


Times listed for 26/02/08: 21.38:50 - 21.43:41. EST from Melbourne. Rising in the west and setting in the south-south east.


Are these correct as they don't seem to match with some of the posts I've read.

Darren :eyepop:

[iceman]

The times that Sheeny originally posted were for Sydney area. It will definitely be different for VIC.

The pass tonight is going to be clouded out :( It would've been a tough one anyway, being just after 8pm still in the twilight.

[erick]

Darren

Those times are correct. Last night, ISS was overhead at 21:20 as predicted by Heavens-Above. Tonight is not the best pass - max elevation 29 deg, magnitude -0.3 at 21:41:36. But it will be clearly visible.

Tomorrow night (Wed 27th), clouds permitting, will be another great sight. -2.4 magnitude. 10 deg up at 20:24:59 and coming in from NW, overhead at 77 deg at 20:27:53, and vanishing SE into the earth's shadow (probably) down around 10 deg at 20:30:50. Almost as good as Monday night. Get out the time exposure camera on a tripod and snap some long exposures, then post here.

Edit: Those times are for my Knoxfield location. Elsewhere in greater Melbourne could be several seconds different. Heavens-Above allows you to put in your coordinates, or select your exact location from the map.

Eric :)

[sheeny]

Nothing spectacular here!:lol:

I wandered out under clouds to see if I could see the ISS. Far from ideal conditions - still very light, lots of clouds... still I managed to get these, for what they're worth...:rolleyes:. I had hoped it would be a little darker and I might've got the ISS amongst some nice sunset clouds:whistle:. I did get 2 other images with the ISS in them but the track was so faint there really wasn't any point in posting them without prizes to give to people who could pick the tracks...:lol:

Taken with the Oly E-510, 400ASA, 4 sec, f/22, manual focus, NR off, IS off, wireless remote, tripod. Of course, the ISS went through the sucker hole just at the end of one image:rolleyes:.

Images have been cropped, levels adjusted and saved for the web in PS CS3.

Al.

[desler]

Thanks for the tip Eric!

From the back yard saw it perfectly from the west, and track right across the sky and dissapear to the south-south east, brlilliant.

Hope visibility is as good tomorrow night!

You guys are a wealth of information, I couldn't even figure out what ISS meant at 2.30 today. Ah well clear skies await.


Darren :D:eyepop::thumbsup:

[erick]

If cloudy tomorrow night, don't worry, it'll "Be Back!" A bright pass seems to occur every few months.

[Meadehead]

Wow! The last three nights have been absolutely exciting for the family, waiting for the ISS to appear and right on time as predicted.:thumbsup:

Last night I entered the elements into my scope in an attempt to track it for the first time, but have to say it wasn't an easy task.

I was out early - set up and aligned, I selected the ISS from the menu and sure enough the rise time listed matched heavens above, the scope slewed to the North West, aiming directly at the neighbours evaporative cooler :doh:but I slewed just above it and waited...... The kids were first to spot it and I was poised at the finder scope with my finger on the start button to begin the tracking and sure enough its path passed dead in the centre of the cross hair, boy was I impressed with myself :D until I pressed the start key that is.... the scope didn't follow the same path so I was correcting with the control pad but couldn't seem to keep it in the FOV - It would have been easier I think if I used a 26mm instead of the 15mm eyepiece. I have to say it was hard work but I had fun:) Can't wait to try again!

[sheeny]

Cool! Keep at it. I read that at 50x magnification you can see detail on the ISS, so I'd suggest the widest EP you have that'll achieve that to start with.

Al.

[iceman]

There's usually an almost overhead pass every 2 weeks. Unfortunately every bright pass for me has been clouded out since late December.

[erick]

Thanks Mike, I tried to find out with a brief, but unsuccessful search, so I guessed. :whistle: