International Space Station viewing..

[minnie56]

Found this over on the CB and lucked out-- it was 15 minutes before it was in the overhead sky! We went outside and a few minutes later we saw the International Space Shuttle! VERY cool!!!!!!

Was a perfect night! Just select your city and you might see it too!!!

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/region.cgi?country=Canada&region=Ontario

 

[dgkjh]

We checked it out last night as I had heard about it on on CBC Toronto radio as I drove into work yesterday morning. It was quite cool and my daughter and her friend stayed up to see it. Very easy to see in the southern sky and boy it was moving fast - 28000 km/hr I believe I heard.

 

[minnie56]

We actually stayed up till the next go round at 0109 too...very cool to see. It doesn't seem to move as fast as I thought it would but it is clipping along!!!!

 

[SaskDisNut]

We've been viewing the ISS for a few years. It has been getting brighter in the sky as the space station gets bigger. Even more spectacular is when the Space Shuttle is docked.

We always use a site called Heavens-Above to track it. You can use a map to pinpoint your exact viewing location. Times for the viewings are incredibly accurate.

The space shuttle is scheduled to launch on Saturday evening with docking to the space station a couple of days later. It will be the first time in history that 2 Canadians will be together in space at the same time.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

This is cool thanks. I sent it home to my wife. Shes going to allow the kids to stay up tonight as it's suppose to be going by again tonight 10.21pm.

 

[minnie56]

We are going out again too...can't believe how this is amusing us! LOL

 

[minnie56]

We've been viewing the ISS for a few years. It has been getting brighter in the sky as the space station gets bigger. Even more spectacular is when the Space Shuttle is docked.

We always use a site called Heavens-Above to track it. You can use a map to pinpoint your exact viewing location. Times for the viewings are incredibly accurate.

The space shuttle is scheduled to launch on Saturday evening with docking to the space station a couple of days later. It will be the first time in history that 2 Canadians will be together in space at the same time.

See, I find this site too complicated for me. But that could speak volumes!! LOL

The other site is spot on as well with times...they say that you can also see in the day and as you mentioned, when the shuttle is docked with it as it will be next week.

 

[Leanne1972]

We are headed outside in about 10 minutes to watch it over Brampton.

 

[SaskDisNut]

Spectacular once again!

 

[Leanne1972]

Beautifully clear night and yet we couldn't see it. Does anyone know how to interpret the number before the direction. For example, at 11:58pm in Brampton it is listed as 10 above NW and departing at 11 above NE. What does the 10 and 11 mean? I'm wondering if we couldn't see it because it was lower in the sky than we thought? Pehaps on the horrizen?

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

I dont know exactly what it means lol but it was traveling parallel to the 401 just north of it. I saw it at 10:20pm missed it at midnight. I might go out at 1.34 if im still up lol To give you a idea about the angle it is flying at. put one arm straight up and one straight out. and bring them together at the same speed thats about 45 degs and look just north at that angle starting from the windsor way to montreal way.

 

[SaskDisNut]

Beautifully clear night and yet we couldn't see it. Does anyone know how to interpret the number before the direction. For example, at 11:58pm in Brampton it is listed as 10 above NW and departing at 11 above NE. What does the 10 and 11 mean? I'm wondering if we couldn't see it because it was lower in the sky than we thought? Pehaps on the horrizen?

Using your example, at 11:58 pm at 10 degrees above the NW horizon the ISS becomes visible and disappears at 11 degrees above the NE horizon. You must also look at the Max Elevation column. In your case for this pass the max elevation was only 18 degrees above the horizon. So this pass was pretty low on the horizon and very difficult to see depending on your surroundings (trees, buildings, lights). I hope that helps.

Off to see the next pass!

 

[Csaks]

What can you actually see?
Tonights is around 10:45, right?
North west to North east?

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

What do you see. Hmmmm a white dot going across the sky. As boring as that sounds it's still very cool to see.

 

[minnie56]

I know-I said to my DD last nite, as we watched it yet again, that I cannot believe this dot moving across the nightsky has amused us to no end!

 

[Leanne1972]

Using your example, at 11:58 pm at 10 degrees above the NW horizon the ISS becomes visible and disappears at 11 degrees above the NE horizon. You must also look at the Max Elevation column. In your case for this pass the max elevation was only 18 degrees above the horizon. So this pass was pretty low on the horizon and very difficult to see depending on your surroundings (trees, buildings, lights). I hope that helps.

Off to see the next pass!

Thank you so much! This is really helpful. Now I'm looking forward to trying again another night.

 

[lisalonglash]

We were at the MacMillan Space Centre yesterday and went to the Observatory after a laser show at the planetarium last night. While we were at the Observatory using their awesome telescope to get up close and personal with Saturn and it's rings, one of the astronomers told everyone to go outside and look up in a particular direction. Turns out that the ISS was passing overhead right then - we all watched the space station for a good two minutes. Very very cool!

 

[Leanne1972]

Space Shuttle launch is delayed until tomorrow.