Post by Paulie pchris00 on Feb 7, 2010 12:16:37 GMT -6
Like many of us probably were, I was anticipating the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour early this morning. Each shuttle mission to International Space Station raises my awareness of the orbiting lab, and I check the website heavens-above.com to find out if I will be able to see ISS flyovers during the mission. Heavens-above showed that I would have an ISS flyover at 5:41AM, just over two hours after the scheduled launch time of Endeavour.
After the launch was scrubbed due to weather constraints, I fought the urge to go back to bed, and peeked out the window to see the waning crescent Moon climbing. I couldn’t go to bed and waste rare telescope time, so I bundled up in my old winter work gear and went outside.
There were scattered clouds as I set up my 6” Dobsonian, and I think they worsened while I sat in my car for a warm-up/cigarette break. Mars was getting low in the west, amongst the worst of the clouds, and also just above a streetlight. I viewed Saturn and the Moon briefly, too, but mostly I sat in the car with the heat cranked monitoring the clouds and listening to music. ISS was what I really wanted to see, and I had time to kill. I had remembered the time ISS was due to arrive, 5:41, but not the direction it would arrive from (west), so at 5:38 I was scanning the sky for anything bright and moving. Twenty minutes earlier there hadn’t been an airplane in sight, but about 5:30 several Chicago bound aircraft filled the sky, coming from the east and banking to the northwest. When I saw a bright object (-3.2 according to heavens-above, but I think it was brighter) approaching from the west, I knew it was Station, and rushed over to the Dob.
It’s not easy to track ISS with even my 25mm eyepiece, and I was using a10mm (120x) this morning, narrowing the field of view. Still, I was able to spot it and track it a few times, totaling about 12 seconds. That doesn’t sound like much time, but it the view was so good that it didn’t matter. Last November I had managed to track ISS at 120x while Atlantis was docked, but every flyover during that mission was less than 15 degrees above the horizon, just above the tree line to the north, so I didn’t have any spectacular views. In fact, it could hardly be recognized as a space station at all.
This morning however, I clearly saw the primary solar arrays, as well as part of the hull running between them. As Station crossed my meridian, it started to dim, though was clearly visible as flew ENE, and finally disappeared behind some clouds. Wow! In a matter of minutes the telescope was put away and I had announced the great ISS sighting to the Facebook World, and now I’m sharing it, in much greater detail, with the Chicago Astronomer World.
In the Chicago area, we should have early morning flyovers for at least the early part of the STS 130 mission. I hope to hear from others with great ISS/Endeavour sightings this mission. Good luck!
After the launch was scrubbed due to weather constraints, I fought the urge to go back to bed, and peeked out the window to see the waning crescent Moon climbing. I couldn’t go to bed and waste rare telescope time, so I bundled up in my old winter work gear and went outside.
There were scattered clouds as I set up my 6” Dobsonian, and I think they worsened while I sat in my car for a warm-up/cigarette break. Mars was getting low in the west, amongst the worst of the clouds, and also just above a streetlight. I viewed Saturn and the Moon briefly, too, but mostly I sat in the car with the heat cranked monitoring the clouds and listening to music. ISS was what I really wanted to see, and I had time to kill. I had remembered the time ISS was due to arrive, 5:41, but not the direction it would arrive from (west), so at 5:38 I was scanning the sky for anything bright and moving. Twenty minutes earlier there hadn’t been an airplane in sight, but about 5:30 several Chicago bound aircraft filled the sky, coming from the east and banking to the northwest. When I saw a bright object (-3.2 according to heavens-above, but I think it was brighter) approaching from the west, I knew it was Station, and rushed over to the Dob.
It’s not easy to track ISS with even my 25mm eyepiece, and I was using a10mm (120x) this morning, narrowing the field of view. Still, I was able to spot it and track it a few times, totaling about 12 seconds. That doesn’t sound like much time, but it the view was so good that it didn’t matter. Last November I had managed to track ISS at 120x while Atlantis was docked, but every flyover during that mission was less than 15 degrees above the horizon, just above the tree line to the north, so I didn’t have any spectacular views. In fact, it could hardly be recognized as a space station at all.
This morning however, I clearly saw the primary solar arrays, as well as part of the hull running between them. As Station crossed my meridian, it started to dim, though was clearly visible as flew ENE, and finally disappeared behind some clouds. Wow! In a matter of minutes the telescope was put away and I had announced the great ISS sighting to the Facebook World, and now I’m sharing it, in much greater detail, with the Chicago Astronomer World.
In the Chicago area, we should have early morning flyovers for at least the early part of the STS 130 mission. I hope to hear from others with great ISS/Endeavour sightings this mission. Good luck!
