If anyone has an interest in watching the shuttle and international space station (ISS) when they orbit overhead-- NASA has a new website with viewing times and sky location which replaces the old j-pass. Just saw the ISS about 10 minutes ago.
Happy viewing…
http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/
Click “Go to Country” then your state & city.
Click “Sighting help” for explanation of tabular info.
That is cool, I can’t wait to see the ISS!
Another great site for satellite watchers is here. There’s a little graphic on the home page there that shows the current position of the ISS above the Earth. Input your location and you can get viewing predictions for the ISS, shuttle flyovers, and all manner of orbiting stuff, most of it either satellites or the spent rockets that got them up there. I’ve tried watching for Iridium flares several times using their data, and it worked perfectly. Very cool.
So…everyone knows about how the shuttle has damaged foam, and pieces were taped flying off the shuttle at launch, and they’re still going through with this?
thousands upon thousands of people die in cars every year, due to speeding and alcohol, and we’re still driving cars?
Does the government pay people to drink and drive?
I’ve got an account at that site (heavens-above.com) and used it to check out an ISS flyover last night. It was brighter than anything else in the night sky (except for the moon) and zoomed from the western horizon off into the east where it appeared to fizzle out about two minutes after it appeared.
The heavens-above site is pretty nifty… just put your address into the site and it’ll tell you when and where to look (complete with a star chart overlay) and you get to see all kinds of objects flying through the night sky.
I’ve not paid much attention to Iridium flares. http://satobs.org/iridium.html gives a nice description and now we have something new to view.
Thanks for the great website.