Fwd: ISS & Dragon sighting Tues

[Jeremy Z]

Not sure if it'll be visible due to clouds, but thought I'd pass it along anyway...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Wallace, Johnny B.
Date: Mon, Oct 8, 2012 at 9:18 AM
Subject: ISS & Dragon sighting Tues
To: Jeremy Z

OK space fans, here is a historic moment to enjoy, weather permitting.
Tomorrow night at 8:08 pm, we can see not only the International Space Station make a 76 degree visible pass above San Antonio, but nearby will be the Dragon Commercial Resupply spacecraft that was launched Sunday night from Florida.

Johnny B. Wallace

[kc.ko...@gmail.com]

Damn I've been wanting a telescope since my parents scrapped the one I had when I was like 8...!

I need to fricken get one already...!

kc

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

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From: 10BitWorks on behalf of zunkworks <sa-hack...@googlegroups.com>

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Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2012 09:22:19 -0500

To: <sa-hack...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: [10BitWorks] Fwd: ISS & Dragon sighting Tues

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[Donald Greer]

  Very Cool!  Added to my Calendar!

  Don

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[Matt Grooms @ Gmail]

No telescope required, as a matter of fact you might have a hard time manually tracking the ISS with a telescope. Naked eye observation is fine on a clear night. Of course all you see is a blip of light, nice binoculars give you a nicer blip of light. Cool thing is just to see something in the night sky that looks like a really bright star, but is in orbit around the Earth.

 

You can see communication satellites fairly regularly as well, but those suckers are hauling-A when they go over.

 

More info here:

http://www.heavens-above.com/

and here:

http://www.satobs.org/

 

Grimey    

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[Jeremy Z]

I'm pretty sure you can see it with the naked eye, magnitude -3.2 hehehe, which is pretty bright. A set of decent binoculars might be recommended if you wanted/needed to use something to augment your vision. Tracking with a telescope is going to be pretty hard unless you have a computerized scope and know how to use it. Even then...

[Jeremy Z]

Ah I duped with Grimey.  My favorite satellites to see are the Iridium Flares, they're so bright you can see them in daylight!

[Donald Greer]

  I agree with Grimey on this, you would spend more time screwing with the telescope than it's worth.  If you want some magnification, use a rifle scope or one side of a pair of binoculars.  You can use your unmagnified eye to point in the right direction, then move the scope around until you see the ISS and/or Dragon and then follow it that way.

  When I taught Astronomy labs in college, every once in a great while (about once a semester) I'd see a satellite flash across the eye piece as I was sighting in on an object.  At the magnification I was using (about 40x) for most objects on the 16", the satellite would go by in literally the blink of an eye.  At best, you just got an impression of the object.  A 4x or 8x rifle scope would allow you to follow the ISS and make out some details (e.g. the panels and modules) and you might see the Dragon as something other than a dot of bright light (though at that distance, I doubt you'd be able to make out more than that).

  Don

[Jeremy Z]

Just a reminder, 20:08:02 local. See heavens-above for details and maps. It's looking fairly clear right now, hopefully it holds for the next couple hours.

[Jeremy Z]

Amazing! I got a few pics but unfortunately I didn't prep my equipment well enough and they're all out of focus... Anyway here's an animation made from 3 of them... http://imgur.com/L8p6b

[Matt Grooms @ Gmail]

Cool; I missed it.

 

So ISS, hugely bright with all its solar panels is in front, with Dragon approaching from behind. Way cool. I’ve seen ISS go over several times, but never with another craft in view. Wow; really sorry I missed it!

 

Grimey

 

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