International Space Station making visible pass by this week.

[STDiva]

http://iss.astroviewer.net/observation.php?lon=-83.0363633&lat=42.3149367&name=Windsor

Type your location at the top and find your optimal time. Might only be available to the north eastern states and southern canada. Try anyway.

Anybody here into telescopic photography should get some pictures.

 

[Jagger69]

Cool site!

There's this site where you can also track the space station (and any other satellite for that matter):

http://www.n2yo.com/

Enter your custom location and click "5-day predictions" and it will show you all visible passes within your viewing area for the next 5 days. I've observed it many times. Once, it passed nearly directly overhead (by FAR the best look you will get at it) only a short time after SS Discovery had separated from it and you could clearly see both structures as the brightest objects in the sky. It was moonless night too so conditions were perfect. Very, very cool to see if you are into that sort of thing.

 

[alexpnz]

Esteedee......always coming with the dope stuff! :clap:

 

[BlkHawk]

I am pretty uneducated about viewing orbiting objects from earth. How much can you actually see? I assume with naked eye it is just light reflecting, so it would kind of look like another star or planet. What can you see with a good amateur telescope?

 

[BlkHawk]

Found some images of MIR taken from earth 1991 for anyone interested. Other orbiting objects as well.

http://www.satobs.org/telescope.html

 

[Jagger69]

I am pretty uneducated about viewing orbiting objects from earth. How much can you actually see? I assume with naked eye it is just light reflecting, so it would kind of look like another star or planet. What can you see with a good amateur telescope?

They can be seen with the naked eye as very bright objects moving quite swiftly from horizon to horizon. Since, in a good pass, you are seeing the reflection of the sun's rays off of the objects passing overhead, it is impossible to make out any detail without a telescope. Problem is, the whole episode only lasts a couple of minutes....these objects are in low-earth orbit and travel very quickly across the sky so it make is extremely difficult to train a telescope on them in order to obtain any specific detail. It's very cool to see nonetheless. I have never used a telescope to observe the ISS and I have watched it pass overhead many times. You're either into it or you're not....I'm definitely into it.

 

[BlkHawk]

They can be seen with the naked eye as very bright objects moving quite swiftly from horizon to horizon. Since, in a good pass, you are seeing the reflection of the sun's rays off of the objects passing overhead, it is impossible to make out any detail without a telescope. Problem is, the whole episode only lasts a couple of minutes....these objects are in low-earth orbit and travel very quickly across the sky so it make is extremely difficult to train a telescope on them in order to obtain any specific detail. It's very cool to see nonetheless. I have never used a telescope to observe the ISS and I have watched it pass overhead many times. You're either into it or you're not....I'm definitely into it.

I used to watch the stars a lot when I had the farm, out in the middle of a pasture on a clear night with no moon and no man made lights was awesome. I never bothered to research the constellations so never new what I was seeing. Here in the middle of the city I find it somewhat pointless. Thanks for the answer even if the system won't let me rep you.