Anybody else see this? WOW!

[hotchip99]

i wonder how CASTANET feels for posting this as a Letter To The Editor?

Oops!

[grammafreddy]

LOL - yeah, I saw that ... serve 'em right for using forum posts as letters to the Editor.

You'd think they could have just used the rest of the info in the thread to actually write a news story ...

I could say all kinds of untrue things and they would just take them as gospel - man, could I ever get them in some hot water with the authorities ...

[SpaceAddict]

Well all is not lost. Hopefully people learned something. Couldn't see anything this morning cause of the clouds but there is always tomorrows pass. It's got to clear up some time. Besides the Leonid's Meteor show is this weekend so there is lots to see if the clouds go away for a bit.

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/071116-ns-leonid-preview.html

[SpaceAddict]

Crash and burn. Can't see it it's too cloudy. Sucks.

Well tomorrow's best chance starts at 6:07 am, If it's clear it will not be as bright as today but it will fly sort of right down the string of planets if it is visible here.

http://tinyurl.com/2f3yt7

There really is only about two more good chances to see it this month after that.

November 20 at 5:19 am and
November 21 at 5:41 am

After that you have to wait till December 5th to start looking for it again. Which maybe a good thing cause the shuttle will hopefully be there also if it launces as planned on December 6th. The good news is it will be visible then around 5 and 6 pm round about.

http://tinyurl.com/2bybvy

Easier to be up to watch for it in the evening.

Foot note: I saw it this morning. It stated out almost as bright as Venus then faded from that. Was a bit of misty high cloud but you could still see it no problem.

[SpaceAddict]

Grammy Freddy:

The ISS and the space shuttle will be visible here tomorrow at 5:57 pm Look west to see it at that time.

http://tinyurl.com/yr36ly

If you don't see it at first don't give up keep looking 5:57 is too early to see it here. don't give up till 6:04 pm if you haven't seen it at that time you missed it. A group of people looking is better than one looking the first time you see it. It should be almost as bright as Venus and from horizon to horizon in 8 minuets. You definitely notice it's moving quite fast. It's almost strait overhead at exactly 6 pm It will be slightly south of Kelowna tomorrow, Not directly overhead. So go outside at 5:56 pm and look west for a star looking thing kind of dim coming towards you. It will just get brighter as it gets closer.

If you miss it the next time to see it for us is March 4th at 5:35 in the morning. Try to see it now cause the shuttle is there too. It will be brighter than normal.

[BriTer]

Thanks for the heads up SpaceAddict!
Hoping the sky will be clear.
Going to check the batteries in the camera, just in case.
Edit to add:
Darn, that would have been this morning. Same for tomorrow???

[Baba O'Riley]

Darn, that would have been this morning. Same for tomorrow???

All may not be lost, BriTer - go get yer camera again!

... Seems SpaceAddict does mean this evening?

The ISS and the space shuttle will be visible here tomorrow at 5:57 pm

Look west to see it at that time... don't give up till 6:04 pm

If you miss it the next time to see it for us is March 4th at 5:35 in the morning.

[SpaceAddict]

No that's pm and tonight. And no you will not be able to see it tomorrow. We are on the last day possible for viewing. Tomorrow it will be too dim to see it. Next time is March 4 the new viewing window starts but it's am then. It usually lasts about two or three weeks depending on the time of year then goes away then reappears in the pm for two to three weeks.

On the 15th and 18th is sort of visible but tonight is the best night to get a chance to see it. Even tonight with the shuttle up there too it's still not the brightest that it can be sometimes. Tonights brightness is -1.3 and it can sometime get a lot brighter than that. Getting it on camera is hard but it can be done. Look for it first. Don't try to take a picture. Then if you see it try to take a picture of it after it passes strait up. It will be brighter at that point.

For KELOWNA go here and bookmark this link when you are there.

http://www.heavens-above.com/main.aspx? ... 469&TZ=PST

With that you can track it yourself and actually everything that is up there.

Negative numbers are brighter. Those are the ones you want to look for. You can see the positive numbers too but start with the negative numbers first till you get used to looking for and finding it.

Hopefully it will clear up. Never know unless you look for it though. Sometimes you can see it threw the clouds.

[SpaceAddict]

The satellite that is falling back to earth can be watched here. That would be the USA spy sat USA 193

It will be much harder to see cause it is much smaller. You want to pick days that the numbers are closer to zero so it will be brighter. basically smaller numbers. Bigger numbers are harder to see. If and when there negative numbers bigger numbers are better to see.

So the 20, 22 and 23rd are the better days to get a view of it.

http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummar ... 469&tz=PST

Time might be running out for USA 193. They may blast it out of the sky. It's quite low right now. about 150 miles up or less and it is loosing about 1/3 of a mile per day more then 1 km per day.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/space/02/1 ... index.html

Who knows you may get to see the debris cloud. It's too low to be a problem with space junk. All of the pieces will burn up within a few weeks if they destroy it. It's much to low to remain in orbit.

Brightness explanation :

Examples of magnitude values for well-known objects are;
Sun -26.7 (about 400 000 times brighter than full Moon!)
Full Moon -12.7
Brightest Iridium flares -8
Venus (at brightest) -4.4
International Space Station -2
Sirius (brightest star) -1.44
Limit of human eye +6 to +7
Limit of 10x50 binoculars +9
Pluto +14
Limit of Hubble Space Telescope +30

[SpaceAddict]

That's IF it clears up in time. a little over two hours to go.

It's harder to see in the winter cause of all the clouds. It's not like it vanishes when you can't see it it's just that it travels over us during the day or late at night. You can only see it when we are in the dark and the ISS is in sunlight so before dawn and after sunset.

[SpaceAddict]

Tomorrow if the Space shuttle lands we could be in for a treat cause the USA plans to shoot down a spy sat just at dusk. Two pictures here for us of the ground tracks we should be able to see, The first one is the orbit just before they shoot it down and the second orbit is about three minuets after they shoot it down. We should be able to see it here no problem if you look for it. Barring that, it's a lunar eclipse also so there is something to see.



One orbit before impact



A minuet or two after impact.

[SpaceAddict]

For everyone that is having problem finding the ISS crossing the sky and picturing how bright it really is this picture shows 70 exposures and a little movie of it crossing the sky. Now normally it take 4 minuets to cross the sky so this is sped up just a bit.

The story and movie download it here:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080228.html

The 77 frame overlay is here:



The next best pass to see the ISS here in Kelowna is March 4th at 5:43 am. March 5th at 6:04 am is going to be a excellent pass traveling right over top of here and it will also be much brighter that day also. More info here:

http://tinyurl.com/237jua

[SpaceAddict]

If you guys miss this post your going to miss the view of the last 100 years of space flight.. Pay attention I'm only going to type this once..

At exactly 6:18 am this MORNING be outside look west a very dim Star will appear and fly towards us it will pass probably over Vernon but to us it will look strait up. That is the European's new unmanned supply mission waiting to link up with the ISS in a few days. It will be -0.3 in brightness. Kind of dim but not bad. At that time it will be 2000 miles east of here. don't rush it takes 7 minuets to go from horizon to horizon.

Ok then at 6:43am the same spot in the sky the ISS will pass over at that time it will be 2000 miles west of us and in three minuets pass right over lake country. It will look almost the same pass as the last object.

At 657 same spot in the sky the shuttle will start coming into view in the west. Give it time it will pass pretty mush right over the airport in three minuets..

You can also see Mars in the west.. Saturn almost strait up and Jupiter just now coming up on the horizon in the east..

Go here click the links..

The European space craft pass :

http://tinyurl.com/22t4hy
Detailed time:
http://tinyurl.com/yur9yj

The ISS this morning:

http://tinyurl.com/2f6qlh
Detailed time:
http://tinyurl.com/257l5f


The shuttle this morning:

http://tinyurl.com/ywrrkc
Detailed time:
http://tinyurl.com/22uvmw



The ISS and the shuttle will be bright -2.2 and -2.1

Dang missed the first one, was typing this instead..

See the trouble I go threw to get you all this data?

Just watched the ISS, way brighter than Jupiter. 4 X brighter..

Shuttle next.. 7 minutes..

[BriTer]

Heads up came to late for the first one, missed the ISS but saw what was probably the shuttle at approx 7:05. Appeared quite visible too.
Way cool!!

[BriTer]

What we believe was the shuttle passed directly overhead. Direction was from Westbank towards Lake Country, no idea where we sit in regards to cardinal points.