Heads up!... ISS Evening Passes

[sheeny]

There's two favourable evening passes of the ISS coming up on the 12th and 13th of July.

The 12th will be a good pass for observers in Tassie at about 17:57 AEST moving from SW to NE.

The 13th will be a good pass for observers in Tassie, Melbourne and Sydney at the northern end. This pass will start about 18:20 AEST and again will run from SW to NE.

Al.

[iceman]

Thanks Al, feels like months since I've seen a good pass.

[sheeny]

Two more favourable evening passes:

On the 14th will be a favourable pass for Adelaide, from SW to NE at about 18:45 AEST or 18:15 ACST.

The 15th will see a favourable pass for most of the SE coast of Australia: Tassie, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisvegas. It may be a little early with the sky still quite light in some places though. The pass is from the SW to NE at about 17:30 AEST.

Al.

[Matty P]

Thanks for the heads up Al, I'm really looking forward to these evening passes.

[sheeny]

July 16 will see another favourable evening ISS pass, this time for central south Queensland and the Queensland coast from Brisbane to say Mackay I guess.

Traveling from SW to NE the pass will start just before 18:00 AEST.

Al.

[garyp]

I was setting up my scope early this evening when I saw what I thought was the ISS overhead. I went in and checked on Heavens Above web site to confirm that it was.

What a great start to the evenings viewing. It tracked almost right overhead town at mag -2.3 around 6:20 local NZ time. Great stuff:thumbsup:.

[sheeny]

Just watched tonight pass. Lots of high cloud here, and the moonlight is diffusing through it to light up everything like a full moon. Transparency was pretty poor, obviously, I could see Jupiter in the east, the moon, the pointers, Acrux and Becrux and sometimes just see Gacrux. Given the clouds I didn't bother to set up a camera.

I picked up the ISS at about 20° above the horizon. It passed a little more than the length of Crux below Acrux, within a degree of Alpha Centauri and about 6 degrees under the moon before entering eclipse (or perhaps it was just obscured by clouds, I'm not sure:shrug:).

Always good to watch!;)

Al.

[Matty P]

Lucky you. At least you saw it. :)

I missed this passing due to the usual cloud cover. :mad2: I was hoping to get some images of the ISS but no luck. I will have to try again on Tuesday.

[cookie8]

Lots of high clouds but saw it for the 1st time. Kind of exciting. Brightest object in that patch of sky.Will try a photo on Tuesday if clear.
;)

[AstralTraveller]

A mate down here worked out that from a narrow band in southern Wollongong the ISS would pass in front of the moon. What a great photo opportunity! So I had the scope in the car - check, battery charged - check, DSLR primed and ready to go - check, adapter - check, cable release - check, cloud - check, thicker cloud - check, can't even see the moon - check. Bugger, bugger, bugger - check, check, check.

How long, I wonder, before I get another opportunity?

Dave

[sheeny]

:lol: at the last few items on your list!

I don't know how often these things happen but, I suspect they aren't very common. I subscribe to the Calsky email notification service (www.calsky.com (http://www.calsky.com)) to let me know whenever the ISS will pass in front of either the moon or the sun. I've been waiting a few months now and haven't had a notification... I have received notification of other events (like satellites decaying near my location etc) but not a lunar or solar transit.:(

Al.

[pneuman]

I spotted the ISS for the first time last night as well, at least with my telescope -- I just tracked it visually the last time it came across on a clear night, but that was nearly a month ago, and I've been kicking myself every since for not taking the telescope out that night! This time I had the 'scope out, even though there was a lot of cloud cover. I could still see the moon through the clouds, so I figured I might get lucky and spot the ISS through it as well.

Sure enough, after a few minutes of looking up in to the clouds, I saw a faint but clearly visible white dot drifting quickly through the clouds. I swung my dob around and tracked it manually for about 30 seconds before it faded in to thick cloud.

It's a beautiful day here today, and if it holds, I might just try imaging the ISS on its pass tonight, now that I have my webcam.

[andy]

thanks for the calsky tip, good stuff !
andy

[DaveGee]

Hi Dave etal,

Apparently it's a fairly frequent occurrence,

Check out Ed's web pages of beaut images and clips.
http://pictures.ed-morana.com/ISSTransits/

[andy]

I had a great view a few min ago, 5-35 pm tuesday, from hazelbrook in the blue mtns, a good 4 mins or so- I hope the neighbours did not see me up on the roof!

[sheeny]

Extensive cloud here tonight, but enough sucker holes to make it interesting.:thumbsup: The ISS really seems to zip across the sky when you can see it, but it seems to go really slow behind a cloud:P:whistle:.

Al.