Seeing the International Space Station

ESP

Senior member
 Braintree
About 5 years ago after a drunken night out my house mate and myself where having a smoke and a kebab in our back garden when he looked up and pointed out the International Space Station flying over. I told him this was bull**** and laughed at him. The next evening he produced a website that said itll be coming back over at X-O'clock that night, do i want to see or shut up? lol
Since then i have been totally addicted to coinciding my evening smoke cigarette brakes with when it comes over, i love it (Im such a geek), my wife waves at it :D When i pointed out she is being daft, i was put in my place "There are 6 people in it right now, maybe they are looking!" :roll:

It will be passing over tonight at between 10:40pm until 10:49pm (and all week) from West to East in the Sky at about 88ยบ (that's like virtually right up) if your near London / south, but it should be visible from all of the UK and central Europe. Go out and have a look (remember to wave lol). [/b]
Anyone else do this or going to have a look?
There are some great free Phone APP's to help track it and get forecasts, i use ISS Spotter.
Alternatively try: http://www.isstracker.com/

Although its traveling around 7.7KM per second Its 370KM up, and lit up by the Sun so its dead easy to find and view (takes nearly 7-10 min to go from horizon to horizon) :thumbsup:


iss-future.jpg
 
It's half and half here at the moment. We don't have any light pollution so if the sky is clear I should get a good sighting.
 
We've waved at commander Chris a few times. He's now retiring :( I'm fascinated by the fact that we can see a real space ship moving across the sky
 
These are up coming siting forecasts for this week but tonight is the best for a while
null_zps90ab32e8.png
 
Geek side also out, it was 3-4 years ago when I last saw it ... Fascinates me

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
Don't worry about Light Pollution guys, iv seen it from Tower Bridge in London, if you haven't seen it before it'll be obvious tonight, its the brightest thing in the sky (and does not flash) :thumbsup:
 
Cool, thanks for the heads up. Got that app, and waiting patiently....

How often is it visible from the south of the UK?
 
Here's a good site for all kinds of space stuff. The ISS is the brightest object in the night sky other than the moon. So it's hard to miss. And it travels across the sky much faster than any other satellite.

http://www.spaceweather.com/
 
Gr8 to do something you've never done before... might have to take the Zed out roofless & heated seats on... might go now up to top of Wrotham hill, though will have to dodge the doggers or do u lot want pictures?

One of the above links also shows PHA's Potentially Hazardous Asteroids being space rocks larger than approximately 100m that can come closer to Earth than 0.05 AU. None of the known PHAs are on a collision course with our planet, although astronomers are finding new ones all the time.

On June 11, 2013 there were 1397 potentially hazardous asteroids.

Recent & Upcoming Earth-asteroid encounters:
Asteroid
Date(UT)
Miss Distance
Size
2000 FM10
Jun 5
50.3 LD
1.3 km
2002 KL3
Jun 6
66.4 LD
1.1 km
2013 LR6
Jun 8
0.3 LD
12 m
2013 LD2
Jun 10
6 LD
49 m
1999 WC2
Jun 12
39.2 LD
1.9 km
2006 RO36
Jun 18
70.9 LD
1.2 km
2001 PJ9
Jul 17
29.2 LD
1.1 km
2006 BL8
Jul 26
9.3 LD
48 m
2003 DZ15
Jul 29
7.6 LD
153 m
2005 WK4
Aug 9
8.1 LD
420 m
1999 CF9
Aug 23
24.7 LD
1.1 km

Notes: LD means "Lunar Distance." 1 LD = 384,401 km, the distance between Earth and the Moon. 1 LD also equals 0.00256 AU. MAG is the visual magnitude of the asteroid on the date of closest approach
 
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