International space station just passed overhead

[Wacky Racer]

Clear as anything in the clear cloudless night sky, travelling very fast, around 17,000 miles per hour....brighter than the brightest star.

Anyone else ever seen it other than PH astronomers?

[Mobile Chicane]

What time was this? I reckon I saw it 22:30 or so. Dorking.

[Wacky Racer]

Mobile Chicane said:

What time was this? I reckon I saw it 22:30 or so. Dorking.

I'm near Manchester.....around 23.45 give or take.

Apparently, it will be visible for the next few nights, clouds permitting.

It is about the size of an American football football pitch, and travels around 250 miles above the earth.

[Eric Mc]

Long running thread here (I set it up 13 years ago) -


https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[anonymous-user]

Watched the Mir space station going past donkeys years ago, i'll look out for this

[Eric Mc]

slopes said:

Watched the Mir space station going past donkeys years ago, i'll look out for this

A Japanese supply craft was launched last night and will be catching up with the ISS over the next few days.

[Drive it fix it repeat]

I'm often out walking late at night and enjoy seeing it and wondering what's going on up there. Had some brilliant sightings, once literally from horizon to horizon straight over my head, me and some friends also saw the star train satellites a night or 2 after they were launched. Rather odd seeing a string of 50 odd 'stars' following each other bearing in mind none of us knew about them at the time.

[Wacky Racer]

Eric Mc said:

Long running thread here (I set it up 13 years ago) -


https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Sorry Eric, I must have missed it..

[red_slr]

The space x star link train was impressive, about 50 bright dots going overhead one after the other a few months ago.

[TheAngryDog]

I saw it on Sunday.

You can get an app for your phone that will let you know when it is visible.

[CrutyRammers]

Yep, last night at 10:30 ish, we were out watching the bats in the garden when it came over.

[SeeFive]

This is a place to look to plan your sightings of various satellite passes.

https://www.heavens-above.com/

[anonymous-user]

Watched it going over last night with my step son, was pretty cool.
From what i can remember of watching the Mir all those years ago, it was a lot lower angle in the sky than the ISS was last night and appeared to be going much faster.

[Buster73]

Just checked my next viewings , all late at night and for no more than 10 seconds , I’ll keep an eye open in the future for a more extended opportunity.

[Eric Mc]

slopes said:

Watched it going over last night with my step son, was pretty cool.
From what i can remember of watching the Mir all those years ago, it was a lot lower angle in the sky than the ISS was last night and appeared to be going much faster.

Mir followed a broadly similar orbital path to the ISS. Both space stations had/have a large Russian content (Mir = 100%) so it was important that both pass over Russia on their orbits. The ISS also has a large European content, so it is important that it also passes over countries like the UK, Germany, the Netherlands etc. That is what dictates its orbital inclination.

The old Skylab space station was 100% American so there was no requirement for it to pass over Northern Europe. Because of that it had a lower orbital inclination and was generally not visible from the UK in the years it was in orbit (1973 to 1979). Likewise, Chinese space stations tend not to be visible from Europe.

Over the course of a series of orbits, passes will change angle and location as seen by a ground observer due to the rotation of the earth. So, if you are lucky to see more than one ISS pass on a night (I've seen three passes in one night), each time it goes over it will appear in a different past of the sky as the observer's position rotates along with the earth.

[thebraketester]

Clear night tonight and straight over north London at 11:34pm

[AlexC1981]

Thanks, that's the first time I've seen it. Amazing to think there are people living on that little dot racing around the Earth.

[Easternlight]

Perfect view here on the east coast, horizon to horizon straight over the top.

[Spare tyre]

Get an app, amazing how often it’s about

[Kinky]

As Eric says .....

Eric Mc said:

Long running thread here (I set it up 13 years ago) -


https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...