Heads up Brisbane: ISS/shuttle double pass Friday morning!

[StephenM]

Hi all in SE Qld,

According to Heavens Above, there will be a magnitude -0.8 pass of STS-128 just after 5am tomorrow, followed 2 minutes later by the ISS at magnitude -3.0! The maximum altitude for both passes will be in Orion, which should make for a great photo opportunity!

By my calculations, the shuttle pass will occur about 4.5 hrs before the scheduled landing time (7pm EST), so I'm guessing they would not yet have done the de-orbit burn? Could someone please check these calculations and confirm this?

Cheers,
Stephen

[jjjnettie]

Thanks for the heads up Stephen. Muchly appreciated.

[Esseth]

Thanks for the reminder, i had to double check because thought it was at 5pm. But its not its AM, my gf is not going to like this lol

[[1ponders]]

Ok....I need to buy myself an alarm clock....or stay up all night imaging. :P Thanks for the heads up Stephen.

[mozzie]

thanks for the reminder
mozzie

[Spanrz]

Stephen, you'd love it here in Melbourne.
Watch the 2nd last pass.
You also can get to see the last pass (as they are in their descent). However I've only seen it once. Still learning on the timings though.
But what I have found out, is that within 15-19 minutes after the deorbit burn, they come over me about 13 degree's alt.
It's has to coincide with the weather and sunlight (reflection). In the last 2 years, not many last passes (descent) has been visable due to weather issues. Problematic in Melb....ahhhh!

They will be landing at 7:05pm EST (Florida time), which is 9:05am our time (east coast). Deorbit will be at 7:59am (estimated 1 hour 6 minutes). I calculated the window to view was 8:16-8:18am, starry nights says "spot on"... Happy Happy Joy Joy.... :D

[cookie8]

Brett, hope you can view it this time. But will it be too bright at 8am?:screwy:

[jjjnettie]

Wake up all you sleepy heads!! Time to set up.

[Bobj]

Yeehaa!! The ISS will be right over downtown Ball Bay at 5.02...20 minutes away!

http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=-20.9032&lng=148.9956&loc=Ball+Bay&alt=5&tz=UCTm10

Cheers, Bobj.

[jjjnettie]

Counting down, only minutes to go.
Had the hairdryer on the lens, lots of dew here.
Venus looks pretty rising in the east.

[jjjnettie]

Awesome!!
Only caught the ISS though.:shrug: There were much fainter satellites about 2min before and the other 2min after.
Not to worry, I got to see that flare.:eyepop:

[Esseth]

Yeah the shuttle was alot fainter than the ISS, but i am assuming that was it because it was just a couple of minutes before and on the same orbit.

Now i am unsure about but to satellites orbit in groups? a few minutes before the shuttle a saw two lights in orbit about a hands span apart, so i had a look through my binos and there were about eight things moving through the sky. i have never seen so many sats in the same FOV before.

[h0ughy]

well done guys, just noticed this - missed it

[[1ponders]]

Good onya guys.:thumbsup:

fogged out here :(

[StephenM]

Saw them both from Brisbane, looked great. The shuttle was fainter than predicted I think. Anyway, I got an image of each of them, but I accidently did only a 4 second exposure of the shuttle rather than the intended 15 seconds, so it's very faint. Images attached.

Cheers,
Stephen

[jjjnettie]

I think the first image is the Shuttle.
The second is obviously the Space Station. A 4 minute exposure @ ISO 200. Note the plane that skirted passed Betelgueuse not long after the ISS.

[jjjnettie]

The amount of parallax between Stephens and my images is interesting.
Where abouts in Brisbane are you Stephen?

[astroron]

I got up, noted that it was Foggy went back to bed.

[StephenM]

Nice images Jeanette. You did a better job of capturing the shuttle than I did! I was very annoyed at myself for not setting the exposure correctly :(. (I'd done a 15 sec test exposure, but then reduced it to 4 sec to focus better but forgot to set it back at 15 sec.) Must have been my low blood caffeine level.

The parallax is interesting to see. I'm in Indooroopilly, which I don't think would be more than 100km from Kilcoy.

Cheers,
Stephen

[jjjnettie]

I nearly missed the shuttle. I was looking for something brighter so by the time I realised that "this is it", it had nearly completed it's pass.'
Didn't do any noise reduction on it either, thus the noise.
( I did take a dark for the ISS shot though, it made a lot of difference)

[Spanrz]

You guys are guns......
Yeah, I know Vincent... (silly me). Tomorrow is better looking though.

Shuttle comes over me around 5:25am, 2nd last pass (KSC landing).
The last pass comes over me around 7am and should be on descent into KSC. Other opportunities exist as they may land in edwards.
Finally a break in the weather, might see some photo time! :D