Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: C-3PO on January 28, 2019, 04:42:13 pm
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ISS visible from the UK tonight @18:08 in my part of the world
Checkout https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/view.cfm?country=United_Kingdom®ion=England&city=London (https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/view.cfm?country=United_Kingdom®ion=England&city=London) or https://www.heavens-above.com/ (https://www.heavens-above.com/)
The chart below is Northamptonshire timings
(https://modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2019/01/28/ISS.jpg)
C-3PO
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I think we saw it! Quite bright and unlike an aircraft. In fact it passed directly over an incoming Gatwick flight.
Colin
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second pass due at 19.45 too
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Second pass only mag 1 so will be a lot less bright!!
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thats still brighter than most stars
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If you register at NASA (https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/ (https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/)) they will either text or email you roughly 12 hours in advance of it being visible in your vicinity. :-))
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No luck tonight. 30% cloud, just where I didn't need it.
Thanks for the info. I will try again when there is a clear sky.
Should be easy to spot, at least as bright as Venus, and moving relatively quickly.
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Yes, quite quick and with a sort of glint, unlike a star, which is the reflected sunlight off the metal.
Colin
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I have Heavens Above on my Bookmarks menu for my location. It shows all visible satelites but I limit it to magnitude 3 thanks to the light pollution.
The 'Home' page gives details of several specific satelites including the ISS and if you click 'All Passes' it will include the ones in daylight. At the appropriate time you can go to https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ESRS/HDEV/ and view what the ISS sees as it passes over you. Often only cloud but you may be lucky.
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At the appropriate time you can go to https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ESRS/HDEV/ (https://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/ESRS/HDEV/) and view what the ISS sees as it passes over you.
What a great site - thanks Brian.
I always think the ISS has a "golden/yellow" tint - a bit like the warm white Christmas LED lights compared to the cold white - star colour
Another high brightness pass tonight @ 18:53'ish
C-3PO
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I can remember staying up with family and friends to watch Sputnik pass over. Quite clear in spite of being only not much bigger than a football. It must have been in a very low orbit. It seemed to be about the same magnitude as an average star but moving quite fast.
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This youtube video gives you an idea what you are looking for if you have not seen it before
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOsOifg4Mm0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOsOifg4Mm0)
C-3PO
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How does this work C-3PO is this a wee peek to see if its all Clear?
Time: Wed Mar 06 4:16 AM, Visible: 1 min, Max Height: 49°, Appears: 49° above E, Disappears: 25° above E
Time: Wed Mar 06 5:49 AM, Visible: 4 min, Max Height: 89°, Appears: 12° above W, Disappears: 39° above E
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Hi Jaymac
Try looking at the 'Heavens Above' website.
https://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=51.1051&lng=-2.9262&loc=Somerset&alt=0&tz=GMT
For your location.
It will give you any visible passes for the next 10 days. Unfortunatly only in the early morning at the moment. The higher the - value the brighter it will be. Click on the date for a sky map of the track.
I was lucky to get a screen shot from the HDEV webite as the ISS passed over Victoria. Port Phillip and Westernport Bays are visible as are the Victorian and Tasmanian coasts.
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Hi Brian I have that don't savvy the two showings on the same day
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Hi Jaymac
There can be more than 2 'visible' passes in one day as it orbits every 90 minutes. Sometimes morning and evening. You have to choose the brightest i.e. the highest negative number. -3 or more if you can. Blame the astromeners for the system.
I suggest you wait a couple of weeks and it should be visible in the evening. Much easier to see unless you are a night owl.
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Thanks Brian never thought of that morning is good for me as up at Mon/Fri 0500
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You have to choose the brightest i.e. the highest negative number. -3 or more if you can. Blame the astromeners for the system.
Ah, the system makes sense. Stars were graded, by eye, from magnitude 1 to 6. 1 the brightest, 6 the limit of vision. The scale became logarithmic (5 magnitudes = 100 times brighter or dimmer) with the introduction of instrumentation, and the magnitude scale extends both ways.
The Sun is magnitude -27, a full Moon magnitude -11, and the dimmest stars Hubble can see are around magnitude 31.
Andy
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So why did they not start with the brightest star, Sirrius, which is -1.46?
Even Canopus is -0.72!
Also why not make the dimmer stars minus?
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Blame Hipparchus! Think if it more than an eyeball grouping, than accurate photometry by instruments. There are sixteen stars brighter than mag 1 (Hipparchus probably only knew 15, as Greece is too far north to see Alpha Centauri), and they all get lumped into the top slot. Now, I can see that Sirius is brighter than Betelguese (-1.46 compared to 0.5) but my head doesn't go 'it's precisely 6.1 times brighter'. They're both 'bright stars', worthy of note.
What is shocking is the effects of light pollution. When I moved to Scotland I started living in the middle of nowhere, outside (and some distance away from) the bright lights of Aberfoyle. My nearest streetlight was two miles away. The sky was full of stars - easily down to the naked eye-limit. Say 4000, plus the Milky Way, easily visible (inbetween incessant rain and clouds of midges, of course). So many stars that I found it confusing to work my way around constellations: I'd never had such dark skies.
Today, I live in Airdrie, surrounded by streetlights. Magnitude 3 is a great night. Call it 150 stars, tops. The Milky Way? Never seen it here without binoculars or a telescope.