[AZ-Observing] Excellent ISS and Shuttle pass
- From: "Steve Coe" <stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:28:13 -0700
Howdy all;
Well, I don't remember having a better ISS and Shuttle pass than this
evening. I rolled back the roof on the observatory so I could block off the
lights from my neighbors and get a little "dark" adapted.
All three objects were right on time and passed from WSW to NNE. First was
the Jules Verne cargo craft, it got up to about the brightness of Bellatrix
and stayed there for most of its path, before diving into the shadow of the
Earth between the Big and Little Dippers.
Now, the Big Guy, the International Space Station, comes along. It gets
brighter, and brighter and then much brighter than Sirius and stays that way
for at least 20 seconds or so. Then fades toward the north.
Trailing the pack is the Shuttle Endevour and it gets about as bright as
Rigel and right at its highest altitude it flashes brighter than Sirius for
two seconds or so. The panels much have lined up just right for a very
short time. I have never seen that before.
I sat for a moment on the drummer's stool in my observatory and thought of
all the men and women who have had the skill and courage to create for
humanity a presence in outer space. I am clear it is "just" low Earth orbit
and it is not finished yet, but it is still up there and people are living
there continuously. And, it took the end of the most expensive "war" in
history to have the two enemies in that war decide to create this marvel.
If you had told me in 1975 when I was on patrol in a submarine gathering
intelligence on that enemy, that this space station would be created by
Russia and the U.S. and that they would be occupying it together, I would
have doubted your sanity. That is a feat just as great as the engineering
of this amazing device.
All in all a great show;
Steve Coe
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