Spot the Space Station

[passedpawn]

http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

Sign up and get alerts when it is going to pass over. The alert will look like this:

Time: Thu Apr 25 9:41 PM, Visible: 2 min, Max Height: 49 degrees, Appears: NNW, Disappears: N


So, get out a lawn chair, grab a beer, and watch the space station race across the sky. It moves quickly. It will show up right on time, and disappear when the alert says so. BTW, 0 degrees is the horizon, 90 degrees is straight up. So, in the case of the alert above, it would be half way between the horizon and straight up. It shoots across the sky, starting and ending at the compass points in the alert. Don't worry, you'll see it, it's bright.

Cheers.

 

[shelly_belly]

Cool. I remember watching Skylab move across the night sky.

 

[Airplanedoc]

I saw it tonight. Was out in the drive, drinking a beer with my neighbor and just happened to look up as see the flyover.

A few years ago I watched it fly over just as the shuttle was approaching or leaving it. Both were visible "a few inches" apart. It was pretty cool watching one chase the other across the sky.

 

[passedpawn]

I get a couple of alerts a week. They also have morning alerts where the ISS is visible just before dawn.

 

[TxBrew]

I'm signed up. Very cool.

 

[Quadrupled]

Cool, thanks. Did you also register with the Deep Impact mission that happened several years ago?

 

[passedpawn]

Cool, thanks. Did you also register with the Deep Impact mission that happened several years ago?

This is the first time that I registered for alerts for this kind of thing. So, no.

 

[runningweird]

signed up, also check out http://iss.astroviewer.net/

I signed up for the alerts and then got all weird thinking "where is my ALERT" then I checked that website and felt dumb.

 

[passedpawn]

signed up, also check out http://iss.astroviewer.net/

I signed up for the alerts and then got all weird thinking "where is my ALERT" then I checked that website and felt dumb.

cool

 

[passedpawn]

Flyover 5am in the morning. I'm going to try to get a pic.

 

[passedpawn]

ISS Commander Chris Hadfield landed this morning. IMO the best version of this David Bowie song ever. I don't know why I feel so strongly about this, but damn, this guy is in outer space. I'm really wowed. Canada should be proud!

 

[goodgodilovebeer]

I think I saw a "Made in China" label on one of those cords...god help them

 

[Airplanedoc]

I think I saw a "Made in China" label on one of those cords...god help them

It was all built by the lowest bidder

 

[Dan]

Very cool. Thanks for the link PP! I signed up and I feel anxious as a kid on Christmas eve.

 

[aeviaanah]

thanks Im all signed up!

 

[Ddubduder]

Very cool, thanks for sharing, I just signed up.

 

[Darwin18]

My wife told me it was flying overhead a few weeks ago. It was visible as a very bright object moving quickly overhead. Very cool!

 

[Quadrupled]

I finally received my first notification, unfortunately it's overcast.

 

[Revvy]

I posted this before but if anyone wants to see really cool video of the ISS making a complete rotation around the earth shot during one of the last Shuttle missions 200 feet away check it out on my Facebook page here ISS Video.

My buddy Scott is the principal investigator for NASA for the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity Project (ADUM) and worked on several studies in the Smart Medical Systems and Technologies branch of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI.)

His work involves teaching of ultrasound tecniques to the astronaut crews about the International Space Station. He is also funded by NASA to establish micro-invasive surgical techniques in zero gravity.

Knowing I'm a space nerd he's always bringing something interesting to me, when we're working on something. He gave me that a couple years back.

I shot this last Saturday, he was giving a lecture for Alumni Day at the Med School, while the space walk was going on (he had me watching the NASA TV Stream for him while he was giving the lecture.) Then he was flying off to kazakhstan for the landing on Monday.

This is his "office" aboard the ISS;

Actually his office on the ground is remotely connected to this med bay.

The collapsed lung worry was very real to him during the spacewalk. He's also working on the project to attempt to land on an asteroid, the landing craft is going to be partially depressurized, so there's the risk of pulminary embolism involved in that.

And a Mars mission is going to involve everything from medical diagnosis to micro surgery.....It's really wild to talk to him, when we rarely get to. He's at every launch or landing, and now that also means Star City Russia, and Kasakhstan.

He even tried to get me a bottle of that Space Beer the, IIRC, Russians brewed a few years back.

 

[passedpawn]

That makes me tingly Revvy. Ooooooh. I love space.

 

[passedpawn]

I've got a flyover at 4:10am. I'm getting my camera set up now and maybe I'll have some pics for you fools in the morning.

 

[Revvy]

That makes me tingly Revvy. Ooooooh. I love space.

Scott's a great guy. He got into the program because he was med school classmates with Jeffery Linenger who was aboard MIR.

Besides knowing them both through working at the medschool, Jeff graduated from my High School. So he and I hit off immediately. I did some video stuff with him when he came down from MIR, and once in awhile he comes into the school.

Because of all this, our medschool has a huge connection with NASA, and with the whole portable ultrasound program.

Scott teaches a gross anatomy clinical correlations unit every year to the first year class. He really takes the basic science concepts to a level that is out of this world, and gets the students really excited. All our med students get to train with the equipment as part of the gross anatomy program, and every year a couple of students choose to do electives with Scott with the NASA program, and get to ride the "Vomit Comet."

I was trying to spot him watching the landing on Monday, but I think he was probably in the med tent, waiting for them to be brought in.

It was really fun last weekend and Monday with him involved with the Hadfield landing, I was telling him on Saturday that I felt that Hadfield really re-awakened that whole child like glee I used to have around space and astronauts. I really felt like a kid again.

 

[passedpawn]

And, if you were wondering about bathroom issues (hah) on the space station, Chris Hadfield has the answers here. Nasty fluids, nasty sticky stuff, etc. I posted a video of Chris jamming back in Post 11 BTW.

 

[Revvy]

You'd like this then. Unglamorous Space Catastrophes That You'll Never See in a Movie they talk about the very real dangers of interstellar plumbing mishaps.

 

[Quadrupled]

And, if you were wondering about bathroom issues (hah) on the space station, Chris Hadfield has the answers here. Nasty fluids, nasty sticky stuff, etc. I posted a video of Chris jamming back in Post 11 BTW.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hj3GnPRsJ4

That was great, thanks. I had to watch it twice because the first time I couldn't stop staring at his watch.

Something about space turns me into a five year old again...it's just so friggin cool. I can't wait to show my oldest daughter, she currently loves anything sciency.

 

[passedpawn]

That was great, thanks. I had to watch it twice because the first time I couldn't stop staring at his watch.

Something about space turns me into a five year old again...it's just so friggin cool. I can't wait to show my oldest daughter, she currently loves anything sciency.

I was watching the watch too! Seriously! I thought I might be the only person fixated on that watch. Funny.

 

[Quadrupled]

You'd like this then. Unglamorous Space Catastrophes That You'll Never See in a Movie they talk about the very real dangers of interstellar plumbing mishaps.

Sounds fun, could you repost the link, it seems to be just text. Think I'll keep this one from "soiling" my daughters innocent opinions of space.

ETA: Never mind, it's working...sorry.

 

[Revvy]

Have you guys seen Sean Ireland's "Hadfield at home" spoofs? They're dead on homages.

 

[Quadrupled]

Mmm, bubbly.

Great links, thanks yet again.

 

[passedpawn]

Have you guys seen Sean Ireland's "Hadfield at home" spoofs? They're dead on homages.

Hah! I liked how he kept dropping the mike in the second video. The floating microphone was mesmerizing to me in the space videos. Thanks!

 

[Revvy]

Yeah that was my favorite spoof.

 

[Quadrupled]

I was watching the watch too! Seriously! I thought I might be the only person fixated on that watch. Funny.

Well, it's a bit comforting to me to know I'm not the only one to obsess on such a unmonumental event, I'm guessing we both catch a lot of the little things. You've always come off as more than your everyday run-of-the-mill stamp collector.

 

[passedpawn]

Well, it's a bit comforting to me to know I'm not the only one to obsess on such a unmonumental event, I'm guessing we both catch a lot of the little things. You've always come off as more than your everyday run-of-the-mill stamp collector.

Hate to burst your bubble, but I'm an ordinary stamp collector ( I wish there were more ). Also, the chances of me catching the ISS at 4:10 are decreasing as I respond to this thread. Good night!

 

[Pappers_]

Signed up for an alert - thanks!

 

[passedpawn]

FYI, I did not catch the ISS at 4:10. My goal is to get out there and put my camera in bulb mode and leave the shutter open during the entire transit, thus getting a nice white streak across the sky. But these early AM crossings aren't working for me.

 

[Quadrupled]

It took close to a month before I began receiving the messages, but I get them almost daily now. One of these days, it won't be overcast and/or I'll be able to force myself up. Today is 3:57AM - no way that's happening on a workday.

Pappers, are you getting alerts yet - I'm in the southwest 'burbs, so the below info is probably close for the general Chicago area.

My alert:
Time: Tue May 21 3:57 AM, Visible: 3 min, Max Height: 88 degrees, Appears: SW, Disappears: NE

I'd really love to see one of your photo's, passespawn.

 

[passedpawn]

I'd really love to see one of your photo's, passespawn.

I have the settings saved on my camera. I'm ready. Bulb, long exposure noise reduction = max, mirror lockup = enabled, etc.

I need to get away from street lighting though. It lights up the particles in the air during a long exposure and you end up with illumination in the sky that shouldn't be there.

Next evening transit I'll get it. The morning ones are difficult!

 

[Quadrupled]

I need to get away from street lighting though. It lights up the particles in the air during a long exposure and you end up with illumination in the sky that shouldn't be there.

When I was finishing up my graduate work, one of the physics professors I collaborated with had an air sampler for our project and there was something ridiculous like 10 million particles per cubic meter in his lab area - this tiny stuff isn't what's in affecting you, obviously, but it was a shocking to me at the time.

 

[shelly_belly]

Just watched it cross the sky and it wasn't even dark yet. Man that thing is bright.

 

[SharonaZamboni]

Just watched it cross the sky and it wasn't even dark yet. Man that thing is bright.

I thought about it at 8:30, but forgot by 9:30, when it was going over.