Saw the Int'l space station and shuttle last night - awesome.

On Wedn night I went outside at 10:01pm with Wifey and saw the Int'l space station moving across the sky. Looked like a bright star, moving at high speed from NW to SE. Faster than a plane. Moved across the whole sky in a few seconds. Five minutes later, saw the space shuttle chasing it. 240 miles away, but bright and easily visible. Same trajectory. One of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Various websites will tell you when and where the shuttle and/or space station are visible from the ground. I highly recommend giving this a try, especially if you have kids who would like to see it. It blew me away.

cheers

That would be a sight to see!
Maybe someone can point out one of the sites that help assist the visually challenged.. I only see stars.

Go here and follow the "sighting opportunities" link in the upper left.

cheers

I skipped the fireworks on the 4th (painting) but stopped for a few minutes to check out the ISS. Pretty fun!

One of my fondest memories is standing in the backyard with my parents several years ago watching the ISS with the Shuttle about 3 fingers behind. They went from plowing with mules and lighting with kerosene, when they were young, to seeing that sight.

If you'll email NASA at the address on the sighting page, they'll put your location on the list.

as they get very close, would they appear as a close pair of lights travelling together? that would be neat.

Thanks for the heads up on this!! That sounds like an amazing sight to see.

-Allen

One of the coolest things I have ever seen was on a flight back from Hawaii, it was just after sunset at 30,000 feet and off to our south a HUGE fireball and smoke trail racing past us. It was one of the few night re-entries of the shuttle, a very cool sight indeed. The pilot did tell us before it happened and said we had to move north a couple hundred miles to clear the flight path. Very impressive to see.

watt4 - yes!

Backyard astronomers will often try to capture some clear frames of the shuttle and ISS when they transit overhead.

You'd be surprised what an 8 inch scope with a webcam attached to it can do.

Take a look at some images a fellow from Wirral, UK recently snagged.

I missed it!! yesterday was the last good day on my location.

Check around the time scheduled for return. It's not hard to figure out from the website when they'll be separating.

powernoodle said:

I highly recommend giving this a try, especially if you have kids who would like to see it. It blew me away.

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For kids of all ages! Even flashaholics!!

For sky and satellite watchers -
http://www.heavens-above.com

73
dim

I use the heavens-above.com site alot. Amazing what you can see if you just look up at the right time.

Thanks for the info and link! Will try to catch it tomorrow nite, our first nite camping this year! Woohoo! This morning I complained to my wife that the hardest part of preparing to camp was upon me, deciding which lites and knives to bring!

daloosh

also www.spaceweather.com

BIGIRON said:

also www.spaceweather.com

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Hm, but that site wants me to pay for a phone alert and email about the space station flyby.

daloosh

I furnished "spaceweather" for general info. It's great for meteor shower info and stuff like that. I use only the NASA site for ISS/Shuttle stuff.

Oh, OK thanks bigiron, for the link and for clearing it up for me!
daloosh