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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
 Posted - 05/06/2006 : 19:26:34
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So I was just out walking the dog, and saw what I really did think was a plane coming towards my location, until I realized I couldn't see any blinking lights. It was really freakin' bright, though. And then it vanished from the skies in just a few seconds.
With the help of www.heavens-above.com (and thanks again to Mab for introducing me to that website), I was able to learn that in reality, I had just seen the International Space Station at a whopping -0.2 magnitude!
So, I got lucky. But I'd much rather watch the skies than watch the dog poop. I managed to see the Hubble Space Telescope pass over my house in the same way.
I told one of the guys at work about watching for satellites, and he didn't believe they could be seen. I told him about the above web site, and he finally went to it, looked up his own location, and wrote down the three brightest satellites listed. Then he and his wife went outside and sat waiting, and the guy told me the next day that his jaw dropped to the ground when he saw his first satellite.
And I've gotta say that I didn't at all appreciate Heavens-Above while I lived in a major population center. I could barely see the stars there, much less the (usually) dimmer satellites. Not that I live out in the sticks now, but I can look in two directions from my deck and actually see some major light pollution. In fact, the city of Fairfax destroys my ability to see the Little Dipper at this time of year. I see Polaris okay, but the rest is lost in a haze.
[Edited 'cause Hubble is a telescope, not a station, dammit.]
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- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2006 : 20:54:37 [Permalink]
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Back in about 1960 in San Diego, I was looking west, using my Dad's old (made in 1900) 3-inch French refractor telescope to observe the moon set one early evening. The moon's visible face had just a sliver of limb lit, most of it was unlit by the sun, but softly lit by earthlight. I suddenly saw a dark, cigar-shaped object swiftly crossing the face of the moon from right (north) to left (south), trailing a bright streak. The length of the craft's body seemed to be half the apparent width of the moon, and its exhaust about the same length. There had been no launch announcement for any satellites. I later figured I'd just seen a military Thor rocket launched from Pt. Magoo, north of LA, probably bearing a spy satellite. I sketched the scene immediately after, so I'd remember it clearly.
I haven't see the ISS yet, and I envy your lucky sighting, Dave.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 05/06/2006 20:56:01 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2006 : 21:08:24 [Permalink]
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Very cool, Half.
I may have gotten lucky, but listings of the positions of the ISS for any given time/date are widely available. That sort of data transparency is what made this image possible. APOD also (once) posted a photo of the ISS in silhouette against a much-fuller Moon, but I don't have time right now to track it down. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2006 : 07:39:47 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
I may have gotten lucky, but listings of the positions of the ISS for any given time/date are widely available. That sort of data transparency is what made this image possible.
Now that is a really cool picture!
I hope you track down that APOD pic.
quote:
With the help of www.heavens-above.com (and thanks again to Mab for introducing me to that website
You are welcome, and the pleasure is mine.
I would recommend everyone to try to spy some Iridium Satellite Flares.
If you get the chance to see a -7 or -8 magnitude flare, take it, then post here and tell us how likely you think it is for UFO-buffs to take it for an extra-terrestrial spacecraft...  |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2006 : 16:22:53 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dave W.
...I managed to see the Hubble Space Telescope pass over my house in the same way...
There's lots of interesting human made machinery as well as junk up there. Iridium flares are cool to spot too. I've seen two in the daytime, and several at night as predicted by heavens-above. Some are startlingly bright.
There's also an old Russian rocket stage that tumbles in orbit, if you're in the right spot on Earth, it's panels catch sunlight so that it appears to blink on and off as it goes over.
The freakiest things to see however are the Noss Triads. (Naval Observatory Spy Satellites.) They appear to orbit in a triad formation.
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Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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pleco
SFN Addict
USA
2998 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2006 : 16:39:25 [Permalink]
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quote:
The freakiest things to see however are the Noss Triads. (Naval Observatory Spy Satellites.) They appear to orbit in a triad formation.
That's what They want you to believe. The Truth is Out There. |
by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart. |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2006 : 18:26:38 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by plecoThat's what They want you to believe. The Truth is Out There.
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 06/15/2006 : 20:45:05 [Permalink]
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So I just saw something pass over which seemed to be a satellite, but Heavens-Above didn't show anything close to its track (piercing the Big Dipper from South to North) anywhere close to the time I saw it.
But, on the plus side, I did discover a nifty trick. You can get more info out of the Web site than they tell you about. If you get, for example, the daily predictions for every of magnitude 4.5 or brighter, you'll get to a URL ending in "&Mag=4.5" If you edit the URL to read "&Mag=5.0" and click the "go" button, it'll actually show lots more (dimmer) stuff. Tonight, at my location, it nearly doubled the size of the list with tons of magnitude 4.7 and 4.9 objects, with a couple of 5.0s thrown in.
Still no luck in finding the object I saw go by, though. And 5.0 seems to be the real limit. Setting it to 6.5 (for example) only gave me 5.0 or brighter. So the creators know people will tinker with the URLs by hand, and correct "out of bounds" numbers. They just don't correct them to match the available settings on the main location page. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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