Clearing skies offer view of Space Station
Building high pressure is clearing the air over Central Maryland, and while we may not be
cloudless Saturday evening, skies should be clear enough to catch a glimpse at the newly enlarged International Space Station as it soars over Baltimore with the space shuttle Endeavour docked alongside.
The precise timing may be a little squishy. (Times in the print edition of The Sun this morning may be a minute too early. NASA planned to boost the ISS's orbit a few miles, as it must from time to time, and in Earth orbit, getting higher slows your speed relative to the ground, which changes the timing of these flyovers. So allow a minute or so on either side of the times we're posting here, just in case.
The good news is that this will be one of the brightest flyovers we've seen. The shuttle delivered a new living quarters module to the station in preparation for adding three more full-time crew members (bringing total to six). And with Endeavour attached, that makes plenty of additional surface to relfect sunlight. The prediction is that ISS/Endeavour will be brighter than Jupiter, which hangs over the southwestern horizon after sunset this week, but somewhat dimmer than Venus, which stands lower and to the right of Jupiter.
Look for the ISS to rise above the southwestern horizon at 5:30 p.m., just to the right of Venus
and Jupiter (visible in the time-lapse photo at right by Justin Cowart, in Carbondale, Ill.; used with permission). The station is headed northeast, from high over Louisiana toward the skies of Nova Scotia. It will climb right through the Summer Triangle, passing very close by Deneb in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. (Print edition says Vega. Wrong again.) At that moment - 5:33 p.m., it will be about 223 miles over your head.
Be sure to wave. That's a passle of your tax dollars flying by. Even more amazing, between the ISS crew of three and the Shuttle crew of seven, that's a small village of 10 people soaring over at 17,500 mph.
You can generate ISS flyby predictions tailored to your location anytime by visiting Heavens-Above.com That's where the map at right came from. There's much more, too.
Happy Birthday, Mom!
Comments
I am in Talbot Co. and at 5:15, the sky had a high overcast and there were no stars, so it didn't look like the ISS would be visible. By 5:30, Venus and Jupiter were visible through the haze, but still no stars. I looked for the ISS, but didn't see anything until a few minutes later when I saw a very bright light climbing out of the WSW somewhat more to the right of the planets than shown in your photo. It was a very bright light which didn't blink and was at least double the brightness of Venus. It climbed overhead and headed to the n.e. where I lost sight of it. This all took a few minutes.
Since its appearance was a few minutes later than the estimated time and was slightly to the west of the reported position, was this the ISS or something else? If it was something else, I can't imagine what it would be. Whatever it was was big and there was no sound connected with it.
FR: That was indeed the International Space Station, with shuttle Endeavour docked alongside. It rose farther to the right than the photo indicated because the picture was taken of Thursday night's flyby, and the track was slightly different by Saturday. And, it was a few minutes late because NASA raised the station's orbit, putting it slightly behind earlier predictions.
Posted by: James Dawson | November 24, 2008 2:41 PM
Hey Frank, yes we also saw the ISS Sat eve, and wrote a comment at that time but it must have gotten lost. We live along the border of Caroline and Talbot County, on Tuckahoe Creek, and saw the bright lights come through the light cloud cover about 5:30. It was thrillling. We last saw it in Toronto in the mid 80's. Thanks for the heads-up !
Charlie
Posted by: Charlie Huddleston | November 24, 2008 10:01 PM