Cazzie
November 25th, 2009, 15:02
I had the scope out observing Jupiter and the Moon this evening awaiting the ISS fly-over that was to to begin at 6:19 pm EDT.
I had to scrub my eyes when I first spied the ISS, it's quite bright. The trouble was, I was seeing two of them. I went in and got my younger son (elder and wife are in Greensboro for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra this evening). I asked if he saw two, he said yeah.
It turns out it was the Space Shuttle Atlantis, trailing along behind the ISS about 5° (approximately the distance between a clinched fist held at arm's length) at the same super speed.
After they disappeared around 6:25, I came in and dialed in the NASA site. Sure enough, the shuttle undocked at 4:53 am EDT this morning to prepare for a landing Friday morning at 9:44 am EDT at Kennedy Space Center.
I have been viewing the ISS for quite some time now, this is the first time I have seen it with the shuttle. The shuttle seemed as bright as the ISS. Maybe off by a fraction of a magnitude, but no doubt the shuttle, nothing else that man makes that moves in space is as fast as the ISS.
Hope one or two of you may have seen it in your arena. Needless to say, it was the epitome of my stellar observation this past year. They could give me tickets to three TSO concerts, i wouldn't give up the six minutes I had viewing those two man-made objects for any of them. :medals::ernae:
Caz
I had to scrub my eyes when I first spied the ISS, it's quite bright. The trouble was, I was seeing two of them. I went in and got my younger son (elder and wife are in Greensboro for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra this evening). I asked if he saw two, he said yeah.
It turns out it was the Space Shuttle Atlantis, trailing along behind the ISS about 5° (approximately the distance between a clinched fist held at arm's length) at the same super speed.
After they disappeared around 6:25, I came in and dialed in the NASA site. Sure enough, the shuttle undocked at 4:53 am EDT this morning to prepare for a landing Friday morning at 9:44 am EDT at Kennedy Space Center.
I have been viewing the ISS for quite some time now, this is the first time I have seen it with the shuttle. The shuttle seemed as bright as the ISS. Maybe off by a fraction of a magnitude, but no doubt the shuttle, nothing else that man makes that moves in space is as fast as the ISS.
Hope one or two of you may have seen it in your arena. Needless to say, it was the epitome of my stellar observation this past year. They could give me tickets to three TSO concerts, i wouldn't give up the six minutes I had viewing those two man-made objects for any of them. :medals::ernae:
Caz