Space Station Tonight (calculator, zip code, rated)

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by spose

Absolutely! I usually catch most of them, unless one goes up while I'm working. My DH went outside to watch the last one (while I was at work), then rewound the DVR and snapped pictures off the TV. He told me it was a nice launch and had pictures. That "might" have fooled me for a minute if the first shot he showed me was in the sky...not of the launchpad itself!

It really is a fantastic machine! It's hard to believe we are going backwards to a smaller, less capable, heavy lift rocket system. It will be like the rockets of the 60's. You would think we would have progressed a little since then.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

MSINA, If you go to the top of the hill by the irrigation pipe you should have good viewing of the space station and shuttle combined. at 4:50 this evening. It will only be visible for 2 minutes before it gets into the earth's shadow. It's supposed to clear before that.



Satellite Rise time Direction to look Transit time Max elevation Magnitude

ISS-Atlantis 04:50:01 pm WNW 04:52:03 27° -2.0 (very bright)

[msina]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

MSINA, If you go to the top of the hill by the irrigation pipe you should have good viewing of the space station and shuttle combined. at 4:50 this evening. It will only be visible for 2 minutes before it gets into the earth's shadow. It's supposed to clear before that.



Satellite Rise time Direction to look Transit time Max elevation Magnitude

ISS-Atlantis 04:50:01 pm WNW 04:52:03 27° -2.0 (very bright)

Thanks, we have friends on their way to have supper with us. I hope they get here in time to look for it.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

It did clear off completely. Bring binoculars.

-update-

It rose right on schedule and appeared to go right over the moon.

The next two nights will be spectacular if they are clear.

Sunday, November 22
Satellite Rise time Direction to look Transit time Max elevation Magnitude

ISS-Atlantis 05:12:11 pm WNW 05:14:28 43° -3.0 (very bright)


Monday, November 23
Satellite Rise time Direction to look Transit time Max elevation Magnitude

ISS-Atlantis 05:34:21 pm WNW 05:36:44 83° -4.0 (very bright)

Monday's pass will be nearly straight up from MSINA's front yard.

[flycessna]

I saw a meteroite or some kind of debris in the sky this evening at about 5:45.. it enterned the atmosphere and burned up pretty quickly.. ?? Have never witness a meteorite before..it was cool..

I will have to check for the shuttle tomorrow..

[maine4.us]

The space shuttle, unfortunately, never lived up to its expectations. It was originally designed as a truck to carry things back and forth to space. It was supposed to be ready make flights every 10 days. If I recall correctly we were supposed to have at least two in space at the same time. It is a wonderful piece of hardware, but it was much more fragile than they expected. It is the most complex device ever built by mankind. The loss of two shuttles stopped the program at times for years. We need something that is a more durable, I honestly don't know if we are technologically able at this time to actually build what we need. I suspect that is why the "NEW" replacement vehicle comes from existing parts and proven designs. Not only are they tried and true, but we save billions in development. It is a step backward in complexity, but it does have a crew escape mechanism, something the shuttle never had.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

In 1970 I was flying the UH-2C, a high speed very expensive rescue helicopter that could do a couple of other things. It had retractable landing gear and was very fast because it had TWO 1,450 horsepower engines on a twist grip. Nearly 3,000 horsepower in a small helicopter was the all time best hot rod a young guy could wish for.

Then I requested and got assignment to Vietnam where I flew the Huey gun ship. That overloaded beast had 900 horsepower and the helicopter was always overloaded. It could barely get off the ground, but once in flight it handled well. Compared to the H-2 it was like a farm tractor. I have a farm tractor today. It will do things my truck can never do and so it was with the Huey. We all came to love that bird. Every veteran from that era stops to listen when they hear the sound of a Huey's blades. It was the truck of helicopters and it taught us all to be better pilots. You didn't make it perform with brute power. You made it perform with finesse. Later we got Hueys with 1,100 horsepower. We just added more ammunition and it performed the same. The Huey was always overloaded.

[msina]

We just came in,... it was a bit crisp to stay out long, Thanks to NMLM we caught it. No binoculars here but, you can see it.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Amazing how fast it goes. We don't get to see something doing 18,000 MPH very often. Tomorrow night it should be almost straight up.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

The Space Station will fly over Maine tomorrow night and it's supposed to be crystal clear with no wind. Times vary, but in Springfield it will rise in the WNW at 4:46 PM and go up in an arc to 67 degrees above the horizon. It will be visible for 2 minutes and 20 seconds before it winks out as it passes into the earth's shadow. Just before it passes into the shadow it often appears to flare as the solar panels are reflected back towards us. It will be the brightest thing in the sky by far.

If you have never seen it before it's interesting. I saw it go in front of the full moon once and didn't have a camera.

ISS 04:46:18 pm WNW 04:48:38pm 67° -3.8 (very bright)