Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Space Station Marathon Starting This Weekend

Posted by timothy on from the this-calls-for-a-twitter-mashup dept.

RobGoldsmith writes with this snippet from Space Fellowship: "If you've never seen a spaceship with your own eyes, now's your chance. The International Space Station (ISS) is about to make a remarkable series of flybys over the United States. Beginning this 4th of July weekend, the station will appear once, twice, and sometimes three times a day for many days in a row. No matter where you live, you should have at least a few opportunities to see the biggest spaceship ever built."

11 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Heavens Above by Flyer434 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Another source for flyby times for the ISS and more. Plus, no java required. http://www.heavens-above.com/

  2. Flyby times by Starlon · · Score: 3, Informative

    As mentioned in the article, you can get fly-by information from Nasa's ISS tracker

    --
    Health Freedom is almost as popular as Freedom itself.
    1. Re:Flyby times by Snowblindeye · · Score: 4, Informative

      I like this site: n2yo. You can see the current position of the ISS, or get the 5 day flyover predictions with details If you click on 'draw' it will show you a graph for each pass, with blue where the station is in the shadow and yellow where it is in the light.

  3. Wolfram Alpha can help! by neiras · · Score: 5, Informative

    For instance:

    http://www92.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=iss+rise+vancouver ...gives you the next ISS flyover for Vancouver, BC.

    1. Re:Wolfram Alpha can help! by chaseneb · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://www47.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=iss This link works slightly better as it will use geolocation based upon your ip address.

  4. Re:Why only the US? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    The good flybys are periodic: the station needs to be in the brief region of space where it's not in the penumbra or umbra of the earth, but is visible from points on the ground that are in darkness, so the sky does not overwhelm the reflection. That happens on every or nearly every orbit. But the parts of the earth that are lucky enough to have that view varies by time of year.

  5. When it passes overhead, be quick about it! by Kligat · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can use NASA's satellite finder to view the time when it will pass over your city.

    I looked it up for Mexico City and there are two great citing opportunities there, five or six minutes long. Vancouver has over a dozen, better than in my city, and Toronto has many sighting opportunities as well. Suffice it to say, the best ones will likely be from 8 to 11pm local time, and the ISS will be only available for five or six minutes at most.

    The last time the ISS flew over my city, I was ready at hand with my dinky 70mm telescope, which I've had a lot of trouble being able to steady despite having it for a year. By the time I had the knobs adjusted right such that it wouldn't slide down as I put my eye to it, I had to run with my telescope after it to a better spotting place before it disappeared with the horizon. It appeared in my viewfinder as two distinct overlapping yellow blurs, but I'm sure I saw it and this time I'd like to try again with a camera.

  6. Doesn't the ISS orbit the earth every 90 mins? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Seems to me this would be a fairly common occurrence, as it orbits the earth many times a day, every day, all the time.

    1. Re:Doesn't the ISS orbit the earth every 90 mins? by Proofof.+Chaos · · Score: 3, Informative

      True, but the Earth is very big and the ISS flies less than 200 miles above it; so you can only see it when it flies within a few hundred miles of straight over your head. Also, the light has to be just right. Its only visible when the sun is not shining where you are, but is shining on the station. That's why the best time to see any satellites is near dusk or dawn. The point of the article is that conditions will be just right more often than usual this month, giving us less than amateur astronomers (especially people living in cloudy areas) a better chance of seeing it.
      I went to http://www.n2yo.com/ and found that it will be flying straight over my head and be very bright in a couple of days.

  7. Anonymous Coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    This is the website where you find the latest sighting opportunities for your location.

    http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/

    Go to +REALTIME DATA / Sighting Opportunities then, choose your country and the rest should be self explanatory, at least for the United States which is all I have used this website for :)

  8. Re: don't adopt the SERIOUSLY FLAWED Direct concep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Not the italian guy again ... Hey, Gaetano, DIRECT was NASA's idea in the first place (by about a decade and a half); See the National Launch System.

    None of the DIRECT engineers or face people deny this fact. Thus, the only one who is falsely claiming ownership of the concept is you!