ISS passed over eastern US last night.

[W3RSW]

-And Canada.
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/skywatch.cgi?country=United+States

Anyone else 'here' see it?

Pretty spectacular. 7x35 binoc's didn't show any more than my unaided eyes.
First visible about 20 deg. above NNW horizon last night, climbed to 70 deg.or so and fairly rapidly faded into Earth's shadow while still almost overhead to the NE.

The spooky thing is that after wondering where it was, it appeared brightly right on cue. Early on it could easily be mistaken for an airplane with landing lights on in the distance, esp. if close to the horizon.

After 30 sec. or so as it "climbed," there was no mistaking it.
It was about a two minute appearance that seemed much longer.

Long subdued feelings of pride...  just watching it. My wife said "Hello guys" in a kind of muted soto voco.

There's another one tonight, much earier but lower on the horizon. Guys in Va. and points east will get a full 5 minutes, I think around 7:50 pm or so. Check the sat. sked, etc. Earth's shadow will be much 'lower'.

[WA2ROC]

I took a video a few years ago of the ISS passing over Durham NC.  

It looks like a white dot in the sky and since there is no spatial relationship. it doesn't appear to be moving in the video.

Here's the link

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6195933160421424743&hl=en#

[K1JJ]

Back in the 90's, I recall seeing several videos made by amateur astronomers of the space station and space shuttles. They used telescopes that were designed to follow fast moving objects like satelites.  

I once remember seeing the shuttle hooked up to the space station. The boom and large solar panels were visible, though grainy.  It does take a lot of effort to see detail of something the size of a small building 200 miles away, through the atmosphere.

The best "astro-DX"  I ever did personally with my 22" scope was to see the Tranquility site of three 1 to 3 mile craters named after the Apollo 11 landing. The craters are aptly named: Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin.   The smallest, 1 mile in diameter, was a challenge.  Think of how difficult it wud be to see the LA Coliseum complex from the east coast, 3,000 miles away. Now try it on the moon at 230,000 miles.

T


The three tiny craters are in this picture:

[W3RSW]

"Tranquility base here."

Yeah, brings back memories. Biggest scope I have left is an OTI Quantum 6 Mak.
Also have a smaller 4" APO refractor and a couple of smaller home brews.
All the old home built reflectors are gone or in a state of dissrepair. The 22" sure sounds nice.

Oh, there was a telephoto movie on spaceweather.com some days ago showing detail on the ISS as it passed over, complete with solar panels, attached Soyuze and the new "space viewing room."  I'll see if I can dig up the link.  Pretty spectacular as it grew in both size and resolution as it was tracked.  Guy did a good job capturing it.

[K1JJ]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtzBb8ufVoU&feature=related


This is one of the best ISS videos I've seen.  Most amateur videos have much more air turbulence.

Maybe they were using a pro mirror adaption method to smooth it out, but it says, "amateur" on the credits. Must have been in unusually stable air otherwise.  

Notice have fast it recedes in size once it passes the perigee and then starts to move away.


BTW, ever seen Mars like this from the backyard?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sxa9pI87bI&feature=related

Or Saturn?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvptWeFPWIg&feature=related

Me neither... 

T

[ke7trp]

I watched the ISS and space shuttle last year From my Front yard.  Really pretty cool..  The next night it was way over.. The following night, we could not see it.

C

[Bill, KD0HG]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtzBb8ufVoU&feature=related


This is one of the best ISS videos I've seen.  Most amateur videos have much more air turbulence.

What size of scope does it take to get that sort of imagery? 10"- 20"?
That is an amazing video.

[W3RSW]

Thanks for the links Tom.
Yeah, that's the ISS video that was referred by spacewx.com.

Your right, it's about the best, short of being there and approaching in the shuttle.

I was also fascinated with the Mars and Saturn vids. I and many others would have killed for such spectacular imagary for most of my life. 1956 and a plain ball of orange nothing just about did me in. Little did I know it was a planet wide dust storm, not even a polar cap which I'd seen (but not much else) earlier in that year.  Of course I jacked up the magnification way beyond what the decent little Unitron could carry.

-And  did you notice the rotating alien ship at the anti-solar point on the Saturn vid?