What else is as bright as the ISS?

Is there another satellite which would appear approximately as bright
as the ISS? (Surely not.)

I looked for the ISS tonight based on the heavens above web site and
saw TWO satellites move across the same bit of sky - from Rigel
eastwards - at a similar speed and only about 30 seconds apart. Their
tracks diverged but only slightly and as I say they were of similar
brightness. Heavens above puts the ISS at -0.3.

Any idea what else I could have seen?

James

On Mar 26, 7:18*pm, James Harris
wrote:
Is there another satellite which would appear approximately as bright
as the ISS? (Surely not.)

I looked for the ISS tonight based on the heavens above web site and
saw TWO satellites move across the same bit of sky - from Rigel
eastwards - at a similar speed and only about 30 seconds apart. Their
tracks diverged but only slightly and as I say they were of similar
brightness. Heavens above puts the ISS at -0.3.

Any idea what else I could have seen?

James

In all likelihood you saw both the ISS and the Space Shuttle
Discovery, which had recently undocked from the ISS as it prepared to
return to Earth's surface.

wrote in message
...
On Mar 26, 7:18 pm, James Harris
wrote:
Is there another satellite which would appear approximately as bright
as the ISS? (Surely not.)

I looked for the ISS tonight based on the heavens above web site and
saw TWO satellites move across the same bit of sky - from Rigel
eastwards - at a similar speed and only about 30 seconds apart. Their
tracks diverged but only slightly and as I say they were of similar
brightness. Heavens above puts the ISS at -0.3.

Any idea what else I could have seen?

James

In all likelihood you saw both the ISS and the Space Shuttle
Discovery, which had recently undocked from the ISS as it prepared to
return to Earth's surface.

**********************
Isn't it great that this is being done in open view of almost the entire
world.

On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:37:38 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

In all likelihood you saw both the ISS and the Space Shuttle
Discovery, which had recently undocked from the ISS as it prepared to
return to Earth's surface.

Agreed, that got me when they dropped the tool bag. I didn't know the
shuttle had undocked and got very confused with two bright objects on the
same track.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 27 Mar, 00:37, wrote:
On Mar 26, 7:18*pm, James Harris
wrote:

Is there another satellite which would appear approximately as bright
as the ISS? (Surely not.)

I looked for the ISS tonight based on the heavens above web site and
saw TWO satellites move across the same bit of sky - from Rigel
eastwards - at a similar speed and only about 30 seconds apart. Their
tracks diverged but only slightly and as I say they were of similar
brightness. Heavens above puts the ISS at -0.3.

Any idea what else I could have seen?

James

In all likelihood you saw both the ISS and the Space Shuttle
Discovery, which had recently undocked from the ISS as it prepared to
return to Earth's surface.

Good call. I think you are right. I wouldn't have expected the shuttle
to be as bright as the ISS but I suppose it depends on their
orientations with respect to the Sun and the observer.

The timing is right. I found this reference to the schedule in
Scientific American:

http://www.sciam.com/blog/60-second-...-st-2009-03-25

James

In uk.sci.astronomy message 5bafded0-66a9-4405-8311-30036715e577@z15g20
00yqm.googlegroups.com, Thu, 26 Mar 2009 17:18:41, James Harris
posted:
Is there another satellite which would appear approximately as bright
as the ISS? (Surely not.)

I looked for the ISS tonight based on the heavens above web site and
saw TWO satellites move across the same bit of sky - from Rigel
eastwards - at a similar speed and only about 30 seconds apart. Their
tracks diverged but only slightly and as I say they were of similar
brightness. Heavens above puts the ISS at -0.3.

Any idea what else I could have seen?

Look a little harder at the Heavens-above main page, and you will be
able to find, as well as ISS predictions, ones for the Shuttle and the
Soyuz; in spite of the considerable amount of cloud, I saw all three
this evening.

H-A currently give 10 day predictions for: ISS | ISS Toolbag |
Soyuz TMA-14 | STS-119 | Genesis-1 / 2 | Envisat ; daily
ones for other satellites ; Iridium flares.

--
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Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc.
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