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Space Station sighting last night was awesome
On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 04:13:38 GMT, "Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)"
wrote: "blacklabelrum" wrote in message roups.com... hey, I'm from the caribbean and was amazed by the fact that you all can see this thing from where you live? must be kool huh? I live in the caribbean and Never saw anything like that before. Pretty interesting stuff! I also bet most ppl here dont even know there is a space station up there, lol. Well, there's nothing other than perhaps local light pollution preventing you from seeing it from where you are. I viewed an ISS pass last night (10/22/06) near Portland, Oregon (USA). The station showed up on schedule at 19:52 and at the expected brightness of about 0 apparent magnitude, 10 to 15 degrees above the western horizon. Then it slowly flared up to a magnitude of at least -10 or maybe -12! It was an intense bright actinic blue-white color. I have observed Iridium flares a dozen or so times in the past, up to a calculated magnitude -8, and this put them all to shame. It must have been the new solar panel. The flare lasted about 10 seconds and slowly faded back to magnitude 0 with a golden-yellow color. The station slowly moved across the sky to the north and faded out to a burnt cinderr, and finally darkness, a few minutes later. The entire visible pass lasted approximately two minutes and was easily the most spectacular man-made artifact I have ever seen in the night sky! If there was some way to predict ISS flares, I could win some bar bets!!! The cool thing was that my wife was along for the ride and I had time to describle the process of the flare as it was happening. I suspect the temporary arrangement of the solar arrays had something to do with this intense flare. The arrays cannot rotate exactly as they should, with one on the end of a truss and one center mounted on the Z truss. When the center mounted array is moved out to the end of the truss and the solar panel movement changes, will this amazing light show go away as things return to "normal"? I am definitely going to be watching in the near future! The only bummer is that Oregon weather does not permit visual observation for at least 5 months out of the year. The Other James |
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Space Station sighting last night was awesome
Hello all,
I often watch it "fly" over my location ( Bunbury/Western Australia ) as well as hear the radio transmissions ( when it's active ) John "Bob the Tomato" wrote in message ... On Mon, 23 Oct 2006 04:13:38 GMT, "Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" wrote: "blacklabelrum" wrote in message groups.com... hey, I'm from the caribbean and was amazed by the fact that you all can see this thing from where you live? must be kool huh? I live in the caribbean and Never saw anything like that before. Pretty interesting stuff! I also bet most ppl here dont even know there is a space station up there, lol. Well, there's nothing other than perhaps local light pollution preventing you from seeing it from where you are. I viewed an ISS pass last night (10/22/06) near Portland, Oregon (USA). The station showed up on schedule at 19:52 and at the expected brightness of about 0 apparent magnitude, 10 to 15 degrees above the western horizon. Then it slowly flared up to a magnitude of at least -10 or maybe -12! It was an intense bright actinic blue-white color. I have observed Iridium flares a dozen or so times in the past, up to a calculated magnitude -8, and this put them all to shame. It must have been the new solar panel. The flare lasted about 10 seconds and slowly faded back to magnitude 0 with a golden-yellow color. The station slowly moved across the sky to the north and faded out to a burnt cinderr, and finally darkness, a few minutes later. The entire visible pass lasted approximately two minutes and was easily the most spectacular man-made artifact I have ever seen in the night sky! If there was some way to predict ISS flares, I could win some bar bets!!! The cool thing was that my wife was along for the ride and I had time to describle the process of the flare as it was happening. I suspect the temporary arrangement of the solar arrays had something to do with this intense flare. The arrays cannot rotate exactly as they should, with one on the end of a truss and one center mounted on the Z truss. When the center mounted array is moved out to the end of the truss and the solar panel movement changes, will this amazing light show go away as things return to "normal"? I am definitely going to be watching in the near future! The only bummer is that Oregon weather does not permit visual observation for at least 5 months out of the year. The Other James |
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