and pins it with a star.
-Lucy Maud Montgomery (Canadian author of Anne of Green Gables)
While out walking the dogs Saturday night my husband and I saw someone we know standing on the sidewalk down a side street and strolled over to say hello. Seems he was waiting for the space station to fly over. Since it is the third brightest object in the sky it is easy to see- if you know where to look. Our friend knew where to look so we got to watch it streak across the night sky. Most of the time you can observe the space station traveling inside the thermosphere (the second-highest layer of Earth's atmosphere) for 1 to 3 minutes but Friday night it was visible for 6 minutes. We were so lucky to be walking by a couple of minutes before it passed overhead. What an astronomical treat.
6 comments:
You can register for emails from NASA telling you when it is visible at any given location. They send them out around 12 hours before, with exact details.
It never fails to thrill, even 10+ years on from first registering. Sometimes in the winter it comes over 3 times in one night! It circles the earth every 90 minutes.
https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/
Thank you, BW, will sign up right away.
Yes, always wonderful to see.....7:52pm tonight for me. On clearer nights with my longest lens you can just about make out some structure to it.
If it goes over at dawn or dusk on a bright day you can usually see the sun glinting on the solar panels on its wings.
When Tim Peake was up we used to wave to him every time he went over.
Nic- How do you keep it in focus? It's moving so fast.
BW- "When Tim Peake was up we used to wave to him every time he went over."
Did he wave back?
Nope, Tim mooned us, so to speak.
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