We watched the ISS overhead last night

Keith Lane

Keith Lane

Pattern Altitude
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
1,637
Location
Conyers, Georgia
Display Name
Display name:
Keith Lane
The whole office emptied into the parking lot here in ATL last night to watch the Space Station/Shuttle pass overhead. It was a perfect night for it. At 1813 it appeared in the Southwest and hauled a$$ across the sky to the Northeast. It was easily the brightest thing up there, and was an awesome sight. I called my house and my family got out in the back yard and saw it as well. The kids got a real sense of how fast and high the ISS really is.
 
Excellent! My most memorable sighting of it was pre-dawn viewing in Egypt. I was outside of Aswan, watching the ISS over the temple of Isis, a fortunate phonetic coincidence.
 
When I was in Sarasota, FL, I had the awesome opportunity to see the most recent shuttle launch. From where we were, I could only see a bunch of flames and then what looked like a star, steady on the horizon, and then slowly descending (as it went across the horizon). Very cool!
 
SkyHog said:
When I was in Sarasota, FL, I had the awesome opportunity to see the most recent shuttle launch. From where we were, I could only see a bunch of flames and then what looked like a star, steady on the horizon, and then slowly descending (as it went across the horizon). Very cool!
Click to expand...

I lived in Land O' Lakes, Fl north of Tampa from 1988 - 1998. We heard the Shuttle come over each time it came home for a Florida landing with the twin sonic booms that would scare the bejeezuz out of you. Once, they were having a night launch at 3:00 AM and we went outside to see if we could see it. WOW, we not only saw it, it cast shadows on my garage door it was so bright. We were 114 SM from the launch. I also was at the second ever launch. A friend and I rode our motorcycles from Atlanta to Titusville and were within 13 miles of the launch. You could feel the sound. It goes up really quick, not at all like what you expect from watching video off the Apollo launches.
 
Steve said:
I enjoy watching ISS/Shuttle fly-bys, too.

I use a couple of websites to determine when they will be visible overhead.

http://www.n2yo.com/

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/

http://heavens-above.com/ (free registration)

I remember one evening watching the Station, the Shuttle, and the Jules Verne cargo module flying (orbiting) in close trail formation.
Click to expand...

Yea, cool stuff.

I remember the first time I was going to watch - I had the sheduled time and was going to be out in the middle of Lake Huron which is a great place since there are no nearby lights. I told the other people on watch with me the time to look for it, but a few minutes before we rip a sail. So I end up down below fixing the sail listening to all the "oohs" and "ahhs". After I get back up on deck they are telling me what a great sight it was.
 
I still remember going outside at about 5am one morning to watch Sputnik go over. As a little kid I didn't know why it was so important to get up early and get cold for a while to see a light move through the sky.

-Skip
 
I just watched a 4-minute pass of the ISS. Cool! I haven't seen the ISS in a few years because I've never bothered to look at NASA's sighting opportunity chart.

When is the shuttle supposed to undock from the station?
 
Thursday (Thanksgiving Day), November 27, 9:40 am CST is the scheduled time.

The quickest way to find mission milestones is to view the NASA tv broadcast schedule. A link can be found @:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Like any airshow, times and events subject to change without notice. ;)



skyflyer8 said:
I just watched a 4-minute pass of the ISS. Cool! I haven't seen the ISS in a few years because I've never bothered to look at NASA's sighting opportunity chart.

When is the shuttle supposed to undock from the station?
Click to expand...
 
Keith Lane said:
I lived in Land O' Lakes, Fl north of Tampa from 1988 - 1998. We heard the Shuttle come over each time it came home for a Florida landing with the twin sonic booms that would scare the bejeezuz out of you. Once, they were having a night launch at 3:00 AM and we went outside to see if we could see it. WOW, we not only saw it, it cast shadows on my garage door it was so bright. We were 114 SM from the launch. I also was at the second ever launch. A friend and I rode our motorcycles from Atlanta to Titusville and were within 13 miles of the launch. You could feel the sound. It goes up really quick, not at all like what you expect from watching video off the Apollo launches.
Click to expand...
I have seen a couple of night launches from the west coast of FL and have to agree that they are pretty neat. I have seen several launches up close and personal with a few at night too. Even more impressive. An amazing amount of light comes from those engines.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top