[AZ-Observing] Re: Another Shuttle and ISS pass tonight (06/20)

  • From: "Neville Cole" <nevillecole@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 22:15:14 -0700

Ya, not too shabby, even though the separation was more like 14 seconds (4 
fingers).  I read on space.com today that they were trying to maintain a 
distance of around 50 miles between them.

Didn't track this one in my scope tonight as I couldn't see it from my 
scope's usual viewing location.

There's a whole series of evening ISS passes happening right now, and 
through the 26th.  They seem to clump together over 5-10 nights in a row, 
and then there will be nothing for 5-10 nights, maybe switching to morning 
passes, etc.

There's a nice bright and long one, mag -0.9, one coming up on the evening 
of the 23rd where we should see it cross 120 degrees of sky (or more) as it 
passes near the zenith.  No more ISS & orbiter passes though.

Neville


----Original Message Follows----
From: "Jimmy Ray" <jimmy_ray@xxxxxxx>
Reply-To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: Another Shuttle and ISS pass tonight (06/20)
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:31:25 -0700

Very nice pass. Thank you for the heads up. Had all the neighbors standing
out watching (glad they (ISS / Shuttle showed up) Every one thought it was
fun...

Jimmy Ray
----- Original Message -----
From: "Neville Cole" <nevillecole@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 10:55
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Another Shuttle and ISS pass tonight (06/20)


Dunno how accurate this is, but Heavens Above is predicting another pass of
the pair tonight.

They should both climb higher than last night, which was predicted to be
only 11 degrees, and they should be brighter too.

This pass information is for the STS-117 orbiter, as seen from my location
in Litchfield Park, and it is predicted to be mag -0.1.

STARTS
20 Jun   21:24:34
Altitude 10 deg
Azimuth NNW


MAX. ALTITUDE
20 Jun   21:27:10
Altitude 31 deg
Azimuth NE


ENDS
20 Jun   21:27:17
Altitude 31 deg
Azimuth NE

The ISS prediction is exactly the same as above, except just 1 second later
in all three cases, and mag 0.4 (0.5 mag DIMMER than the orbiter).

I plan to track this pass in my scope tonight... if they truly are close
together, they might both fit in the same field.


Regarding last nights pass...

I believe the leading, and brighter, object was actually the orbiter, and
the dimmer, trailing one, was the ISS.  I know, I was surprised by this same
thing last year during one of these tandem passes too.

This jives with Heavens Above's mag predictions from last night (orbiter at
mag 2.1, and ISS at mag 2.6), and tonight as well.  Additionally, Heavens
Above DID predict the orbiter would be leading...  To me they appeared
approximately "one finger width apart" with my arm outstretched.

Definitely cool, and thanks for the heads up on these passes Tom.

Neville

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