Space Station Spotting

[Eric Mc]

Loaded

Thanks.

[MartG]

Make sure you've got the satellite plugin enabled ;-)

[Eric Mc]

Very bright pass coming up at 18.48.

[Shaw Tarse]

Eric Mc said:

Very bright pass coming up at 18.48.

18:45 for me!

[pwd95]

Cracking pass. Anyone know what those tweo bright stars are in the West?

[RosscoPCole]

pwd95 said:

Cracking pass. Anyone know what those tweo bright stars are in the West?

Venus and Jupiter.

[MartG]

pwd95 said:

Cracking pass. Anyone know what those tweo bright stars are in the West?

Venus and Jupiter

[pwd95]

[Pothole]

It was a really bright pass this evening from here in clear-skied Leicestershire!

[pwd95]

It'll be back at 20:20 for another low pass...
5 mins! Get out there....

10 degrees West to 21 degrees West for me. very brief.

[pwd95]

Very brief but clear once it cleared the distant trees.

[dickymint]

Elderly said:

Eric Mc said:

Yes. It's a permanent fixture in my "Favourites" these days.

If you like 'Heavens-Above',
I'm sure you will like this free download:

http://www.stellarium.org/

Many thanks.

Anybody used it for the ISS and compared it to real life?

[Eric Mc]

I did last night. It's spot on (no reason why it shouldn't be, to be honest).

[dickymint]

Cheers Eric. I see it's also available free for Iphone. I won't be getting it as it requires an update to IOS 5 and I'm not prepared to do that.

[jmorgan]

Not strictly ISS but there are ISS downloads for this.

Not the same as Stellerium, more of a touring package.
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/

Look in add ons/motherload. The ISS is in there with a host of others.

[Eric Mc]

Another good pass coming up in about 20 minutes. It should be against a not quite dark sky so shouild look quite good.

[S6PNJ]

A good spot, nice clear skies, saw it with the moon, Venus and Jupiter! (I think)

[Eric Mc]

That was nice.

[Elderly]

S6PNJ said:

A good spot, nice clear skies, saw it with the moon, Venus and Jupiter! (I think)

On the 12th/13th March Venus and Jupiter will be only 2 degrees apart.

It was good to see the ISS against a lighter sky but both my brother (who lives 50 miles from me) and my wife and I had difficulty in picking it up in the West and couldn't see it for a least 1 minute into its 'visible' pass.

[Eric Mc]

It's due over again in about 10 minutes only this time much lower and it will just miss the moon and Venus.