Shuttle Pass at 5:50 AM

I just made a naked eye observation of ISS and Shuttle pass. My location is
in Southern California. ISS was steady, Atlantis "appeared" to be tumbling
with two regular flashes with a period of about a second.

What could cause this?

George Evans

On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:27:11 +0000, George Evans wrote:

I just made a naked eye observation of ISS and Shuttle pass. My location is
in Southern California. ISS was steady, Atlantis "appeared" to be tumbling
with two regular flashes with a period of about a second.

What could cause this?

That's a really fast period for the Shuttle, must have been flashes from
reflections of the Sun off of bright surfaces. I'm looking forward to
seeing them tomorrow at 6:45, if they're still up there. 6:45 Central or
7:45 Eastern, would be the second landing opportunity. Maybe they'll get
an extra day onorbit. ;-)

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

--
Craig Fink
Courtesy E-Mail Welcome @

in article , Craig Fink at
wrote on 9/20/06 6:42 AM:

On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:27:11 +0000, George Evans wrote:

I just made a naked eye observation of ISS and Shuttle pass. My location is
in Southern California. ISS was steady, Atlantis "appeared" to be tumbling
with two regular flashes with a period of about a second.

What could cause this?

That's a really fast period for the Shuttle, must have been flashes from
reflections of the Sun off of bright surfaces. I'm looking forward to
seeing them tomorrow at 6:45, if they're still up there. 6:45 Central or
7:45 Eastern, would be the second landing opportunity. Maybe they'll get
an extra day onorbit. ;-)

My sentiments, too.

George Evans

In article ,
George Evans wrote:
I just made a naked eye observation of ISS and Shuttle pass. My location is
in Southern California. ISS was steady, Atlantis "appeared" to be tumbling
with two regular flashes with a period of about a second.

Out of curiosity, how bright (qualitatively) is the shuttle compared
to the ISS? Was Soyuz visible as well, or has it docked?

Nick

On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:09:16 +0000, George Evans wrote:

in article , Craig Fink at
wrote on 9/20/06 6:42 AM:

On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:27:11 +0000, George Evans wrote:

I just made a naked eye observation of ISS and Shuttle pass. My location is
in Southern California. ISS was steady, Atlantis "appeared" to be tumbling
with two regular flashes with a period of about a second.

What could cause this?

That's a really fast period for the Shuttle, must have been flashes from
reflections of the Sun off of bright surfaces. I'm looking forward to
seeing them tomorrow at 6:45, if they're still up there. 6:45 Central or
7:45 Eastern, would be the second landing opportunity. Maybe they'll get
an extra day onorbit. ;-)

My sentiments, too.

You know I really wish NASA and Russia had worked a little harder to
figure out how to dock an extra Soyuz with the Shuttle docked to the Space
Station. This mission would have been a really good opportunity to get
some nice pictures of the Shuttle docked with the Space Station. Maybe
there will be some other opportunities in the future.

--
Craig Fink
Courtesy E-Mail Welcome @

in article lid, nmp at
lid wrote on 9/20/06 11:47 AM:

Op Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:25:23 +0000, schreef Craig Fink:

You know I really wish NASA and Russia had worked a little harder to
figure out how to dock an extra Soyuz with the Shuttle docked to the
Space Station. This mission would have been a really good opportunity to
get some nice pictures of the Shuttle docked with the Space Station.
Maybe there will be some other opportunities in the future.

I don't think taking pretty pictures is the goal of the mission!

I agree with Craig. I think that this would be a particularly fine day to
see pictures of a majestically docked, gleaming white Atlantis, maybe with
Venezuela or Iran visible hundreds of miles below. Yea, right now, I could
go for that.

George Evans

in article , Nicholas Fitzpatrick at
wrote on 9/20/06 7:22 AM:

In article ,
George Evans wrote:

I just made a naked eye observation of ISS and Shuttle pass. My location is
in Southern California. ISS was steady, Atlantis "appeared" to be tumbling
with two regular flashes with a period of about a second.

Out of curiosity, how bright (qualitatively) is the shuttle compared to the
ISS? Was Soyuz visible as well, or has it docked?

This morning my subjective estimate is that Atlantis was between 1/2 and 2/3
the brightness of ISS. Soyuz was docked.

George Evans

"George Evans" wrote in message
...
I just made a naked eye observation of ISS and Shuttle pass. My location is
in Southern California. ISS was steady, Atlantis "appeared" to be tumbling
with two regular flashes with a period of about a second.

What could cause this?

George Evans

Better conditions tomorrow morning for those us in in So Cal looking to view
ISS thursday 6:11 am, will be higher up in the sky 61 degs, as compared to
11 degrees this morn... unfortunatly Atlantis will already have landed by
then...

George Evans wrote:
I just made a naked eye observation of ISS and Shuttle pass. My location is
in Southern California. ISS was steady, Atlantis "appeared" to be tumbling
with two regular flashes with a period of about a second.

What could cause this?


The "flashing" that you saw was probably a result of the smoke that is
present in the atmosphere above Southern California from the wildfires
that have been burining in the area recently. I have noticed that even
stars seem to be twinkling much more distinctly since the fires
started.

Has anyone noticed a distinct increase in the visual magnitude of
Station with the addition of the P4 solar arrays?

Craig