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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."

19 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Horrible picture in article by syousef · · Score: 2, Funny

    When I first saw the picture in the article I thought someone had posted some image of a fire and was trying to pass it off as a practical joke image of the space station hitting the ground and exploding for 4th July celebrations...

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  2. 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/

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

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

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    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.

  4. Why only the US? by neokushan · · Score: 3, Funny

    Curious, why does this seem to be a US only thing? I understand the reasoning behind the date - 4th of July weekend, but I do not recall anything like this happening for any other part of the world. Surely us weird Europeans should get a chance to look at it, as well? It IS the INTERNATIONAL Space Station, after all.

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    1. 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.

    2. Re:Why only the US? by Darth_brooks · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yep, us dastardly uh-mer-uh-can's have, using the power of our fourth grade math skills, manipulated the laws of orbital mechanics to give you yer-o-pee'ins the short end of the stick. U-S-A! U-S-A!

      The improved viewing lasts from the middle of July, including the days leading up to the Endevour ink-up through the end of the month. RTFA.

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    3. Re:Why only the US? by michaelhood · · Score: 5, Funny

      Tell you what- you bring the Eiffel Tower or the Tower of Pisa by, and I'll let you take a look at the International Space Station.

    4. Re:Why only the US? by nedlohs · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yes because rather than being the chance of the position of the sun, the earth, the ISS, and their orbits, it's a conspiracy by Americans.

      They make sure it doesn't pass over Europe - makes for some rather hard orbital mechanics - magical ones even as it makes hard turns in its orbit to avoid a continent- but well worth it!

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

    1. Re:When it passes overhead, be quick about it! by gringofrijolero · · Score: 2, Funny

      I looked it up for Mexico City and there are two great citing opportunities there...

      Good luck seeing it through the smog.. I kid! I kid! I love Mexico City. The food is great. Try the pastor.

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  7. bad weather by joyfeather · · Score: 2

    And, of course, in the normal way of life, we are predicted to have clouds and rain for the next few days. Seems to always happen whenever there is something cool going on in the sky!

  8. Re:Biggest spaceship? by Sarten-X · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "the biggest non-fictional spacecraft manufactured by humans on the planet Earth within recorded history, known to the public to exist prior to the writing of this article" doesn't have quite the same ring to it...

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  9. Marathon? by jollyreaper · · Score: 2

    Hopefully the station's AI won't go rampant this time around.

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  10. Can a programmer please write a google map to time by hellop2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    converter? You click your location in google, and it returns a table of all the next flyby times. Please and thank you.

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  11. 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.

  12. Re:Cool by imamac · · Score: 3, Insightful

    biggest spaceship ever built...

    by humans.