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[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Catching the International Space Station during this July window
A good one this Saturday the 11th...!

Orbital mechanics offers us Earthbound looker uppers several windows of repetitive opportunities of the ISS flying over our heads.

July 2009 is a good month for Space Station catching, with a lot of low horizon passes. But this Saturday, the 11th of July 2009 the ISS will make a spectacular flyover. High, bright and not late in the evening or in the wee hours of the morning:

Starting at 8:33:47 pm and coming up low in the WSW at 10 degrees above the horizon, the ISS will appear as an abnormally bright star - and moving steadily.

At 8:36:42 The ISS will be practically overhead at 70 degrees and very bright.

And at 8:39:08, the ISS will sink to the NW and disappear at 10 degrees over Lake Michigan.

This is an exceptionally good flyover, as the ISS will not enter the Earth's shadow and be visible throughout in totality. It will take about 3 to 4 minutes for the ISS to pass and is an usually long sighting.

In 2007, I observed the ISS and the Space Shuttle together for a spectacular sighting:

Full account and more pics here: astronomer.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=StarParty&action=display&thread=1342

If the skies are clear, (and it looks like they will be), I will venture up to the lakefront to capture this with binoculars and camera. There will be no concerts at the Charter One Pavilion and access to the Adler Planetarium area should be open. I will set up by the old Meigs Airport Control tower with camera, telescope and tunes...

For a complete schedule of ISS sightings over Chicago, visit Heavens Above:

www.heavens-above.com/AllPass1Sat.asp?satid=25544&Session=kebgfgfifhdjdihajdfggigb

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Keep updated on the ISS by following the Chicago Astronomer on twitter:

www.twitter.com/astronomerjoe

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

A Remarkable viewing of the International Space Station over bright Chicago Skies

Usually ISS passes are low to the horizon or in the wee hours, but this flyover was scheduled to fly high, slow and bright.

We we not dissapointed.

I was running late and rushed to set up my equipment - Canon S3 camera and Tripod. My tripod was literally falling apart and I don't know what the hell happened to it, but I did the best I could and set up. We set camp at the Old Meigs Field, (Now Northerly Island), in the parking lot.

I wanted to take video this time, as I have taken still time exposure shots in the past. It was going to be a bright magnitude, but "Heavens Above" didn't include the magnitude of the ISS viewing for this pass...I wonder if it's because of the newer solar panels... (I see now at the time of this posting, that the magnitides have returned.)

I set it up just in time - at 8:33 pm and searched. There were four of us craining our heads over the western Chicago horizon and skyline. But nothing.

Shown sitting on the '68 Chevelle are: Myself, my friends Al & Nancy and Fellow Adler Astronomer Linda.

I was hoping to catch it early, and we all kept searching with binoculars and eyes. It wasn't until it arched overhead that I turned to the north and immediately spotted it. Incredibly bright and steady, it's heading was just as predicted. I dashed to the camera and started taking video and snapping pics at the same time...

In the rush to set up, I foolishly set the camera on auto, and it kept focusing on the streetlamp not too far away. But the video does capture how cool the viewing was...if only for a few seconds.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA9Q0z00I4w

It was well worth the time & effort to spot this. Linda could descern not just a pinpoint of reflected light, but structure to the object through her 8x50 binoculars...as could the others using my 10X50s. Those newer solar panels are fantastic!

We also spent some time observing Saturn, but each night...it's sinking lower in the atmospheric muck and soom will be gone until the late fall. And it was too soon for Jupiter and the Moon to rise, so it was star hopping and some binary star observing. The location was too illuminated by streetlamps for other summertime objects to target.

(On the 20th of July 2009, the ISS will make a 53 degree Alt pass at magnitude -2.0...quite bright and still not too low. And...it's the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.)

Astronaut meet coming soon!

[Paulie pchris00]

I know the clouds were probably an annoyance at the time, but they do well in the video, serving to give a frame of reference to the motion of ISS.