Re: ISS fly over

Posted by Bret on May 21, 2010, 1:58 pm, in reply to "ISS fly over"
187.146.83.78

Here's my favorite satellite watching link: Satellite Visibility from La Manzanilla The coordinates and time zone for La Manzanilla are included in the link, so if your location is somewhere else, just follow the link(s) near the top of the page to change your observing location. So people in La Manz can see the ISS (with the Atlantis space shuttle docked) pass over tonight May 21 from 9:26 to 9:30 PM, and again on Sun May 23 from 8:40 to 8:45 PM. Follow the link for more details such as what direction (azimuth) and what height above the horizon (elevation) to look at. It will be almost as bright as Venus, which is high in the west after sunset. For another satellite treat, you can try to catch an Iridium flare. They are listed on this site also. Be warned you have to enter your exact coordinates to see these because each "flare" is only visible from an area on the Earth a few miles across. And since they only last a few seconds, you need a very accurate clock with you so you know exactly when to look up. An Iridium flare is caused by sunlight reflecting off one of the 3 flat panel antennas on these satellites. It can look like a very bright spot of light (much brighter then Venus) slowly moving in the sky, that comes on and fades out in 5 to 8 seconds. There are 70+ of these Iridium satellites orbiting, so every place in the world can see "flares" almost every evening and also pre-dawn. Some are even visible during the day. You just have to know exactly when and what direction to be looking! Daniel, there was a very bright flare last night just a few minutes after we saw the ISS. Let me know if you need a hand spotting one. (I'm an Iridium nerd because a lot of my coworkers at Motorola back in the '90s built these satellites, which make up the Iridium satellite phone system. Nobody realized they would also generate an interesting light-show phenomenon.)

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Be sure to visit www.lamanzanilla.info