International space station visible this evening

[Yeager]

Did anyone see this at 6:41pm this evening? Was out looking and there it was! Moved across the sky pretty fast (like a plane) and was visible all over Ireland - cloud cover dependant obviously.

Its worth seeing if you get a chance and is visible the next few evenings but the time will differ. Weather is promised dodge the nest rew days so the opportunity might be gone.

3 people in it at the moment and orbiting at 350km above the earth, its impressive.

 

[NHG]

Got to see it as well, thankfully someone came on the radio about 5 min before and spoke about it, otherwise I would'nt have known anything about it.

 

[Tomodinhio]

Anyone know what time it will be visible at this evening. I want to wave at the space men.

 

[Teatime]

Got to see it as well, thankfully someone came on the radio about 5 min before and spoke about it, otherwise I would'nt have known anything about it.

Yeah I saw it at around 6:45pm. It was fairly moving across the sky.

 

[Daddy]

I was very impressed as were my kids.

I think it's visible until some time in early Feb.

Again, anyone know the time ?

 

[TarfHead]

Astronomy Ireland (I think) provide a (premium rate) text notification service for when & where it will be visible over Ireland.

A few months ago, it had the shuttle docked as it passed over, not that you could make that out from ground level !

 

[dub_nerd]

Forget about the Astronomy Ireland text service -- I couldn't believe someone would try to rip you off like that for a crappy service which you can get much better and free here, among other places: [broken link removed]

When using the above page, be careful -- the times are CET which is one hour ahead of GMT which we are on at present -- subtract one hour for local Ireland time. Also, check the magnitude and the max altitude in degrees: although all the flyovers are theoretically visible, some are much more "theoretical" than others. Look out for those with magnitude of -1 or lower ... this makes it about as bright as Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, but a good deal less bright than, say, Venus which is visible very brightly in the evenings at present after sunset. In fact, Venus is a good way to line yourself up because the space station will appear from the same quadrant of the sky (i.e. approximately towards where the sunset happened).

The maximum altitude tells you how high the space station will fly over compared to the horizon. For low altitudes, below say 30 degrees don't waste your time especially if you are somewhere with light pollution ... it will skim relatively close to the horizon. Look at for the ones above 50-60 degrees ... for these the space station will appear out of the south/south west, probably well above the horizon before you first notice it -- you need to keep your eyes peeled -- and will travel towards you, appearing to accelerate as it approaches more nearly overhead, and will vanish in the east ... usually fading away gradually as it enters the earths shadow.

Because of the shape of the space station's orbit, flyovers of Ireland come along in batches every so often. If you miss it this time, there will be more opportunites. December was a magical month for the space station -- true you couldn't see the space shuttle when it was docked, but for three days between undocking and landing the space shuttle and space station went overhead in procession ... with the famous "tool bag" up there somewhere too ... also we had simultaneous fantastic views of Venus, Jupiter, and the early moon, with an occultation (like a mini-eclipse) of Venus by the moon at one point.

Get and see it! Well worth it, and worth knowing about what's going on up there!

 

[Teatime]

also we had simultaneous fantastic views of Venus, Jupiter, and the early moon, with an occultation (like a mini-eclipse) of Venus by the moon at one point.

Yeah I presume the very bright 'star' near the moon at 6:45 now is a planet. Is it Venus ?

 

[ivor james]

Fantastic information there from Dubnerd,well appreciated and great work thanx. I also find it very inteseresting as to whats goin on up there above us,that occultation you spokw about was just about the strangest most awesomw sight I have ever witnessed in the night sky but I didnt realise what it was exactly until the next day!

 

[Mers1]

Thanks a million Dub_Nerd, great to have that information. Spotted it on Sunday night and I just thought that it might be a satellite and how lucky I was to see one as it was such a clear night. Thrilled now that I know what it is.

Might dust off the ole telescope and see if I can figure out how to use it before this ends in Feb.

Thanks again.

 

[dub_nerd]

Yeah I presume the very bright 'star' near the moon at 6:45 now is a planet. Is it Venus ?

It certainly is ... currently (going from memory) about magnitude -4, which is just about as bright as it ever gets (and about a dozen times brighter than a mag. -1 space station -- here's some info on the magnitude scales used by astronomers: http://www.go-astronomy.com/articles/magnitude-scale.htm). The moon will be moving away from it now (since the moon moves about an "hour" every night, while Venus has been bright for many weeks now but always stays relatively close to the sunset or sunrise)

Thanks a million Dub_Nerd, great to have that information. Spotted it on Sunday night and I just thought that it might be a satellite and how lucky I was to see one as it was such a clear night. Thrilled now that I know what it is.

Might dust off the ole telescope and see if I can figure out how to use it before this ends in Feb.

Thanks again.

Don't bet on seeing too much with a telescope ... that boyo moves pretty fast and will be gone by the time you line it up. You have a chance with binoculars, but you won't see any detail that way... it's that little bit too far away. An interesting technique some serious amateurs have used is to time exactly when the space station (or other satellite) will pass across the face of the sun (doesn't happen that often). It requires exquisite timing and special filters for pointing a scope at the sun -- DO NOT DO THIS YOURSELF, IT IS DANGEROUS. Then they can take an ultra-short length exposure through a telescope and capture fine detail of the object in silhouette. (I heard it caused quite a stir among the intelligence community in the US that some, er, "not so well known" satellites could be imaged this way).

Fantastic information there from Dubnerd,well appreciated and great work thanx. I also find it very inteseresting as to whats goin on up there above us,that occultation you spokw about was just about the strangest most awesomw sight I have ever witnessed in the night sky but I didnt realise what it was exactly until the next day!

Yes, I watched through binoculars -- first time I've been able to see the moon move perceptibly in its orbit over a period of minutes as it pulled away from Venus. Fabulous!

 

[dub_nerd]

Here's one of the images I was talking about -- the space station and shuttle Atlantis undocking as they pass in front of the sun ... I think this may be best amateur photograph I've ever seen:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2006/09/20/shuttle-and-iss-transit-the-sun/

 

[dub_nerd]

Ok, and one more -- sorry, I get excited about this stuff -- the moon and Venus ... this is the sort of thing you could have seen the last couple of days, and also back in December:

http://www.astrosurf.com/legault/lune-venus-060822.jpg

The nice thing to me is the "dark side" of the moon, outside the lit up crescent, illuminated by "earth light". You can easily see this through binoculars -- the explanation is that when the moon is a little crescent near the sun, if you were standing on the moon looking back at earth it would be opposite the sun and "full" ... it's that earthshine reflecting back on the moon that lets you see the "dark" bit. If you want to see this you need to have not too much light pollution, otherwise the lights increase the contrast, and the sky and moon look blacker making it much harder to see the earthshine.