Another ISS Pass Heads Up

[stephend]

About a fortnight ago I was trying to focus on the trapezium in Orion in the early evening through the industrial glare of Newcastle when this truly awesome satellite burst on the scene. Looked more like an airliner with landing lights on. Anyway it blazed away about due East gradually fading and vanished at about 45 degrees from the Eastern horizon.
Following it with naked eye I saw another satellite on a crossing path heading more or less North. This one was bright but not extraordinary. Its feature was that at one point it distinctly flared up for about a second. By distinctly I mean by more than one magnitude.

I figure the first object had to be the ISS. Re the second, satellites just don't do this, do they?

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by stephend

About a fortnight ago I was trying to focus on the trapezium in Orion in the early evening through the industrial glare of Newcastle when this truly awesome satellite burst on the scene. Looked more like an airliner with landing lights on. Anyway it blazed away about due East gradually fading and vanished at about 45 degrees from the Eastern horizon.
Following it with naked eye I saw another satellite on a crossing path heading more or less North. This one was bright but not extraordinary. Its feature was that at one point it distinctly flared up for about a second. By distinctly I mean by more than one magnitude.

I figure the first object had to be the ISS. Re the second, satellites just don't do this, do they?

Yes they can. It's called a flare. The iridium satellites are reknowned for it as they have large solar panels, so when the geometry is right they reflect a lot of sunlight. I have also see the HST flare - the sun reflects off the objective door.

Al.

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by RB

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.

Andrew, everything but a meteor in that shot! Maybe I'd better look a little closer.

I see ISS, Moon, star trails, large and small magellanic clouds, crux, coalsack, aeroplane, and backyard stuff!

[RB (Andrew)]

LOL, I know Eric, it certainly is a busy scene.

[Protiotype (Ray)]

And tonight for people in Brisbane, a -1.9 Mag. ISS.

18:46:48 10° alt., SSW (starts)
18:49:37 44° alt., SE (max altitude)
18:51:16 20° alt., ENE (ends)

Hopefully the forecast "few showers" for today stay at no more than that!

[erick (Eric)]

Forecast for this evening's pass over Melbourne (approx 19:40 - 19:47, just after sunset) is clear and (gulp!) 34 deg! Get out there folks!

[desler]

Erick,

Hi, where did you get tonights info for ISS, Heavens above doesn't list anythingh viewable tonight?


Darren

[erick (Eric)]

That's interesting. I was going from my search a few days ago (see attached). Current Heavens-Above says it passed over at 9:46 this morning.

Let me guess that when the Shuttle is attached, everything changes!

Sorry guys, learn something new every day.

Edit: Well looks like it did come past as scheduled in my attachments. I was inside moaning that I had missed it!

[Meadehead]

It was a great pass tonight! First time I saw it in twilight 10 mins after sunset, at 1946 it was 88 degrees directly above shining bright at Mag -3 Awsome!

[Protiotype (Ray)]

Brisbane has been drizzling on and off pretty much the whole day. :-\

[gman (Grant)]

Desler,

I use NASA for the ISS & Shuttle info
Key in your country - state and then closest town/suburb.
It will then give you a days and times for sightings in your area
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/

[Meadehead]

I use Heavens Above at http://www.heavens-above.com

Once you enter your location, you will get very accurate information including maps of the pass & current location. It has been spot-on every time

I've just checked but there's no visible pass.
Maybe it has pulled over for refueling

[gaa_ian (Ian)]

Had a look at ISS here this morning.
It is certainly getting BIG, I could even make out that it had a shape with a pair of 16x bino's.
The Space Shuttle was supposed to follow 1 minute later, but might have been a bit faint in the pre-dawn sky.