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The Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS) separated late this morning. As it happens, this is also an excellent viewing night. If you haven’t seen this before, get outside about 5 minutes early. Look up in the NNW sky about ¼ of the way up (22 to 27 degrees). The ISS (with solar panels extended) is now the BRIGHTEST object in our night sky after the moon. Yep, even brighter than Venus. Only lasts about 3 minutes (it is scootin’ by at a mere 17, 500 MPH). Enjoy the show!!

http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/s ... an_Antonio

ISS ..........Tue Jul 28/09:15 PM 3 60 27 above NNW 17 above ESE
SHUTTLE...Tue Jul 28/09:14 PM 3 59 22 above NNW 20 above ESE


If you live outside of San Antonio, use this link.

http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/s ... gion=Texas



Doug

you should be able to see three separate bright dots. the shuttle, the station, and the progress.

Progress is about 5 minutes behind the other two.

Awesome! Thank you so much for posting this. We just now saw it go over Jacksonville. The entire show lasted about 2 minutes. Unbelievably bright objects. We're so psyched to have been able to experience this.

just stepped out here in Houston to watch them fly over. Amazing site to see them flying in formation like that.

I knew that Air Force SatCom stuff was good for something :-) Shuttle/ISS watching has been a hobby of mine since I joined in 1985 and had numerous "Shuttle Missions" with our Satellite Communications van. We would provide comm to one of the backup landing sites for take-offs and landings. Diego Garcia was "our" place to go.

If you keep checking the site listed, it will tell you when the ISS is good for sighting.

Doug

Edit - add P.S. If you missed it tonight, the "double feature" is out for awhile...fewer and fewer (until none are left) Shuttle trips left. I think there is 1 or 2 more scheduled.

LaserTex wrote:If you missed it tonight, the "double feature" is out for awhile...fewer and fewer (until none are left) Shuttle trips left. I think there is 1 or 2 more scheduled.

Make that six or seven -- specifically, STS-128 (Aug09), 129 (Nov09), 130 (Feb10), 131 (Mar10), 132 (May10), 133 and maybe 134 are planned.

LaserTex wrote:The Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS)

I think it's off-limits for carry....

At about 9:45 last night, I remembered what it was that I was going to do earlier.

Oh well, I have talked to them (the shuttle, Owen Garriott W5LFL, STS-9 1983) on the radio, in the distant past, with a handitalkie and a homemade beam antenna, seated on the ladder rack of my telephone truck in the parking lot of an insurance agency outside Albany, NY. Boy did I get some strange looks.

DoubleJ wrote:

LaserTex wrote:The Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS)

I think it's off-limits for carry....

Goof...





Ball...












I seem to recall a Federal Marshall flew one time...I think I recall we even had a discussion if the shuttle and ISS were "off limits"...

I think if you declared the firearm, packed it in a TSA and airline approved container, kept the ammo separate, you might be good to go...

I think the Russian side of the station might be a little dangerous to just go floating around in...

I can think of a couple of experiments that might be kind of fun.

Firing a .45ACP toward Earth, and watching for it to light up.

There was a funny science fiction story a bunch of years ago, which involved a conflict on the Moon, where each side had fired projectile weapons at the other and had aimed too high. This left a whole bunch of projectiles orbiting the Moon, and the residents compensated by sounding an alarm every time the "projectile cloud" was due to pass so everyone could take cover. The fired projectiles during the conflict fit into four general categories, those that achieved escape from the Moon's meager gravity, those that were fired at a low angle and came to rest, and those that achieved orbit, sub-divided into eccentric and relatively stable. All of the projectiles in eccentric orbits had long since hit the surface, but there were a large number in the fairly stable orbits that decayed slowly threatening objects and people as they finally dropped low enough, thus the alarms.

Now if I could just remember the rest of the story.