Just took the kids over to the park and watched th ISS & the Shuttle orbit over.
Was a bit worried about cloud cover but it broke at the right time and we watched it come out of the SSW.
Picked it up about 20:12pm and watched it for a good 2-3 minutes till it disappeared into cloud cover going into the east
Just took the kids over to the park and watched th ISS & the Shuttle orbit over.
Was a bit worried about cloud cover but it broke at the right time and we watched it come out of the SSW.
Picked it up about 20:12pm and watched it for a good 2-3 minutes till it disappeared into cloud cover going into the east
Hey Grant, tomorrow night should be much better. Tonight was magnitude -1.0 and max altitude 28 deg. Tomorrow (20:32 - 20:37) should be -2.4 magnitude (brighter with shuttle attached?) and 90 deg (that's right, smack through the zenith and with darker sky as well!)
Much the same again Monday night 19:40 - 19:46 (-2.3 mag and 82 deg)
First pass was great, I didn't know it was happening, just happened to be out setting up the scope. Saw it in the South, couldn't be anything else, so I went over to Heavens above and confirmed the sighting. The next pass was due about an hour later, so I waited for it, even set up the scope to track it.
I didn't check to see when it passed into shadow, which precluded a telescopic vision. Saw it naked eye though, even had dragged the missus and one of the kids out!!
For what it's worth, stood outside looking at the clouds hoping to see something.
I could see haze where the moon was, and could just make out Sirius through the clouds.
Then, the IIS popped over - don't know if it was just a difference in the thickness of the cloud, but it clearly outshone Sirius as it went over.
Would have been magnificent if it weren't for the cloud.
I had the scope set up in the back yard to play with the DMK on the moon. Ten minutes before it is due to go overhead a lady from down the street walks past my back fence and spots the scope. She had timed her walk to coincide with when she thought the ISS would pass based on last nights pass, so I was able to tell her it would appear in 7 minutes and be directly over head in 10.
When the ISS appeared I started to take some shots of it. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to set manual focus properly due to chatting over the fence but I got some shots. While the ISS was approaching zenith I heard a voice maybe 3 or 4 doors down on the other side of the street saying "oh, look there it is up there! Look!" I think the ISS is becoming a bit of drawcard even with non-astronomers.
It was another lovely flyover tonight so I gave it another go.
This time I tried to frame it by estimating where the ISS would fade out and some different settings on the camera.
The moon was blazing away 6 to the dozen which adds a nice dimension to it I think.
Anyway it was fun to be out with the kids under the stars again.
I think the ISS is becoming a bit of drawcard even with non-astronomers
