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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

- The ISS Makes another great Flyover in Chicago skies
on Thursday the 10 of Sept 2009 -

September 8th's brilliant flyover in semi-dark Chicago Skies was a great one, ( astronomer.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=iss&thread=2570&page=1 )....

...and we will get another chance to witness a very bright and even HIGHER arc in the early evening.

Starting out low in the Southwest at 7:29 pm,

- the ISS will glide very high in the South East at 86° at 7:31 pm

- and sink to the NorthEast at 7:34 pm

With an almost overhead flyover and very bright, it will be a very nice observation of the space station.

About a four minute observation window, the ISS will pass tantalizingly close to the star Vega and would make a great image shot. This is a good one....!

The only problem may be the weather. It is predicted for semi cloudy skies and chance of rain. But I am organizing a an observation party anyway.

Updates here and via my Twitter feed: www.Twitter.com/astronomerjoe

I hope to take better pics than my last session....

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

As of Wednesday evening - the 9th of September.....

...we are a big GO for assembly to observe the bright flyover of the ISS on Thursday - the 10th of September at 7:29 pm.

The Chicago Astronomers are arriving at about 6:30 pm at the Adler - most likely in front and set up scopes. I will bring the 4" Nikon refractor for some Jupiter observing after the ISS pass and I think we will have a 10" SCT present from the Adler as well.

We are expecting some important visitors from a summit - more later.

All are welcome and encouraged to share this great flyover.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

The Space Shuttle will be Observable too Thursday...!

In my excitement for the ISS flyover, (real geeky...I know), I forgot about the Shuttle, which recently detached from the ISS and still in Earth orbit.

And it will be visible tomorrow as well...!

At 7:26 pm the Shuttle will appear in the SW...

Gliding to an altitude of 81° in the SE at 7:29 and at Magnitude -1.4.

and diving down in the ENE at 7:32, where it will disappear.

The Shuttle on the left and the ISS on the right - making a "Veega" sandwich...!

This is not a bad showing of the Shuttle - at -1.4 mag, and will be 5 degrees away from the ISS as they both pass high over head a couple of minutes apart from the zenith point pass. The Shuttle will appear first and the ISS following. Very cool!

This will make an incredible....image. An exposure of 8 to 10 seconds at least as they pass Vega will be in order....and later combined...maybe Registax processing.

Great stuff for astro geeks...!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

According to NASA...

The STS-128 Space Shuttle mission is scheduled to land at 6:05 pm Thursday....just missing a flyover over Chicago. They may be given a go for an additional orbit...ergo the above time frame.

But let's just see what happens on Thursday.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Also......

At 7:35 pm...an Iridium satellite is supposed to make a flash in the SSE sky.

Flashing at a magnitude of -0 and 66° in altitude, Iridium 54 should be visible naked eye soon after the ISS flyover.

Night of the Satellites.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

From the KSC Twitter feed at 2:30 pm CST:

"The STS-128 crew has been given a GO for payload bay door closure. The weather in Fla at KSC is currently observed NO GO.


So it looks like we will get to observe the shuttle afterall.

Excellent!

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

A Great Chicago Astronomer ISS Observation Party

With great pre-response from Chicago Astronomers and fans, I anticipated this evenings event to share with friends & visitors - and catch another pass of the ISS flyover in early evening September Chicago skies.

And we were not disappointed.

Joining us were friends from the Chicago Astronomical Society (C.A.S) and members of the 2016 Olympic Green Movement - having a summit meeting at the Adler this evening.

I set up early with Telescope and camera equipment, and slowly fellow ISS geeks showed up with big smiles and their own equipment.

Fellow Joe from the C.A.S brought along a classic reflector from the early '60's left to him by a Tuskegee pilot...and Milky Ways!

Caitlin from Yelp stopped by to enjoy the flyover

Always pics before the event, and here we have: Chicago Astronomer Linda, Terry, Joe & Audrey from the Chicago Astronomical Society, Jeff from IIT, Dr Mark Hammergren from the Adler, Chicago Astronomers Steve and myself.

Time was fast approaching for the ISS flyover, and some saw the Shuttle precede the ISS a couple of minutes earlier...but I did not and most did not either. I decided not to take video, but instead do stills. All in manual with a high f-stop - the sky was still too bright and little contrast. So I anticipated this and added a polarizer filter to darken the sky and increase exposure time before hand. Worked out well.

The large crowd that assembled to observe, had dissipated by this pic, but President of the Adler Planetarium, Dr. Paul Knappenberger joined us and is standing next to me - standing still for a 6 second time exposure.

A large group gathered in front of the Adler, consisting of visitors, invited guests, members of the 2016 summit and people walking by - curious on all the telescopes and people. As the time came and went, (7:29 pm) - we saw nothing. I was getting a bit nervous.....did I mis-read the data...? As I organized this, egg on my face was not too appealing...and with all these people present! But sure enough, someone saw it first and shouted it out...thank goodness. I started to take time exposures. The west bound ones were all washed out, but as the ISS arched overhead, the spacecraft reflected more light and against a Eastern darker sky - better imaging was at hand....

The ISS made a great orbital path down toward the Adler Planetarium Dome and I was in a great position to capture it. (I did take an educated guess on where the ISS may mark it's path from the flyover two days ago - but it was mostly luck...

Changing orientation of the polarizer, I attempted to alter the sky lighting conditions*.
(*The pics here are heavily processed and enhanced - noise artifacts has crept in despite utilizing anti-noise software.)

The crowd present were excited and in awe as the ISS glided over our heads and put on a good show....to my relief....

And as it vanished behind the Adler...so ended another Chicago Astronomer ISS viewing party...but not the evening. There was still Jupiter to observe and the evening was young....albeit quite humid and misty.

Fellow Joe using his classic Criterion Reflector and sharing views

Chicago Astronomer Eddie and his son have been attending our events and here, takes a peek at Jupiter thru Terry's massive 25X100 binoculars on a tripod.

Eddie and I

And Terry and I

Chicago Astronomers Linda, Steve, Myself and Alfred

Chicago Astronomers John, Myself and Jeff from IIT

People kept on coming, some disappointed on missing the ISS, but were treated to views of Jupiter and it's satellites.

Thank you to all of our Chicago Astronomers, the Chicago Astronomical Society and to Audrey for alerting the 2016 committee and brought them down to our observation site. The group made this a great evening to share the ISS flyover with fellow astronomers, friends and the public.

Ain't astronomy fun...?

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Chicago Astronomer Joe's ISS Pic Included in at the SpaceWeather ISS Gallery

spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Joe-Guzman-ISS2_filtered3_1252696887.jpg

Nice.