Following on from Tony Buicks short talk on thursday, there are a few transits of the ISS tomorrow morning.
The first starts at 03:23 Transits at 03:28 and sets at 03:33 :-?
2nd is at 04:57, Transits at 05:20 and sets at 05:07 Max mag 2.3 :lol:
3rd. Starts 06:32, Transits at 06:37 sets 06:42 Max mag -1.2 :lol:
4th Starts 08:07, Transits at 08:12 sets 08:17. Max mag 0.2. :lol:
the 2nd & 3rd are nearly W to E
4th is roughly WNW to SE.
Data from Starry night.
Have fun
Mac.
Do they give any information about visibility? My prediction program suggests that the first will be in total darkness and the second mostly in darkness. The third should be well illuminated. The fourth will be in daylight.
If anyone does and ISS observing in the next few days I'd be interested to know how accurate these predictions actually are:
Satellite predictions with favourable viewing geometry (>25) for:
Ground Station : High Elms, Farnborough, Kent, England --- JO01AI
Time Zone : UTC (+0.00 h)
in eclipse * in daylight o
^ ^
Date Rising at Peak elevation Setting Height Satellite
Y M D Time Az. Time Az. El Time Az. (peak) Name
====== ========= === ========= === == ========= === ====== =========
061127 04:58:08* 255 05:02:53* 180 79 05:07:52 80 ISS
061127 06:33:01* 277 06:37:53 349 87 06:42:52 98 ISS
061127 08:08:00o 283 08:12:45o 203 34 08:17:30o 129 ISS
061128 03:43:35* 238 03:48:19* 158 45 03:53:11 77 ISS
061128 05:18:20* 267 05:23:12* 353 82 05:28:11 87 ISS
061128 06:53:20* 282 06:58:12 189 66 07:03:03o 111 ISS
061129 04:03:39* 253 04:08:31* 159 75 04:13:23 80 ISS
061129 05:38:39* 276 05:43:31 51 84 05:48:23 96 ISS
061129 07:13:31* 283 07:18:16o 206 37 07:23:08o 127 ISS
061130 02:49:06* 235 02:53:50* 155 41 02:58:42* 77 ISS
061130 04:23:51* 265 04:28:43* 22 83 04:33:35 86 ISS
061130 05:58:51* 281 06:03:35 202 70 06:08:34 109 ISS
061201 03:09:03* 251 03:13:55* 155 71 03:18:47* 79 ISS
061201 04:44:03* 275 04:48:47* 346 83 04:53:46 95 ISS
061201 06:18:55* 283 06:23:40 203 41 06:28:31 125 ISS
I'd guess the easiest to time is probably "Peak Elevation"...
well the good old british weather was up to its normal tricks,
the 03:23 was cloudy as was the 04:57, :cry:
dont know about the other two as i fell asleep.
It was absolutely tipping it down when I woke up just too late for the 06:37...
When I first got my telescope and used it a bit more than I do at the moment I regulary saw the ISS and the timings given on Heavens Above are correct more or less to the second.
I'd stand outside about 2 minutes to it being visible and then track it with binoculars till it disappeared which was a lot quicker than you imagine!
fingers crossed, i'm going to have another go tonight, as there are anothe few passes predicted.
I just hope i'm working outside tonight.
The 06:58 one will be quite a challenge, and the 05:23 one will be quite short, if the prediction program I'm using is anywhere near correct. The ones at 05:43 on Wednesday and 06:03 on Thursday look promising though.
hurah :D
Weather 0 : Humans 1.
Unfortunately i was working undergound tonight so didn't manage to see the earlier passes, however I managed to bag the 05:39.
Strangely enough, the UARS sattelite passed overhead about 2 mins before the ISS this was lsited as -.71
where the ISS is listed as -1.34.
Below is a sized photo, No processing has been done except to make it smaller.
(http://www.macrhon.demon.co.uk/photos/images/Small_DSC_9643.jpg)
I do have the other two either side of this photo if required.
The length of the trail is 30secs and the direction of travel is from right to left.
I'll make some measurements later and see if the predictions are accurate.
If you want a full sized unprocessed photo heres the link. beware its
1.5meg!
http://www.macrhon.demon.co.uk/photos/images/Full_DSC_9643.jpg
Nice one Mac - Great picture... Like the plough as well - Let's have some more - John
Mac,
That is a really great picture! Especially with Ursa Major as well.
Fay
Nice image Mac,
looks like this is the next conquest for a few people. I've tried this before just hand held with my digital camera and just had a light trail all over the place, which reminds me, I must invest with a tripod and remote.
keep up the images Mac
Tony G
I guess webcam imaging could allow quite accurate timing of flares and eclipses?
Having processed the picture a little further and added some info, here are the results.
Ephemeris data for ISS from starry night.
Local Time Az Alt RA Dec Kind Mag Distance Illumination
29/11/2006 05:43:41 91° 75° 11h 39m 04.6s 49° 20' 45" Satellite -0.96 356 km 54%
29/11/2006 05:43:43 92° 73° 11h 51m 55.4s 48° 25' 46" Satellite -0.90 360 km 52%
29/11/2006 05:43:45 92° 71° 12h 04m 02.9s 47° 26' 54" Satellite -0.83 364 km 50%
29/11/2006 05:43:47 93° 69° 12h 15m 27.2s 46° 24' 54" Satellite -0.76 368 km 48%
29/11/2006 05:43:49 93° 67° 12h 26m 09.0s 45° 20' 31" Satellite -0.69 374 km 46%
29/11/2006 05:43:51 93° 65° 12h 36m 10.0s 44° 14' 26" Satellite -0.61 379 km 44%
29/11/2006 05:43:53 94° 63° 12h 45m 31.8s 43° 07' 15" Satellite -0.54 385 km 42%
29/11/2006 05:43:55 94° 61° 12h 54m 16.8s 41° 59' 30" Satellite -0.46 392 km 41%
29/11/2006 05:43:57 94° 59° 13h 02m 27.0s 40° 51' 38" Satellite -0.37 398 km 39%
29/11/2006 05:43:59 94° 57° 13h 10m 05.0s 39° 44' 05" Satellite -0.29 406 km 38%
29/11/2006 05:44:01 94° 55° 13h 17m 13.0s 38° 37' 09" Satellite -0.21 413 km 36%
29/11/2006 05:44:03 94° 54° 13h 23m 53.1s 37° 31' 07" Satellite -0.12 421 km 35%
29/11/2006 05:44:05 94° 52° 13h 30m 07.6s 36° 26' 12" Satellite -0.04 430 km 33%
29/11/2006 05:44:07 95° 50° 13h 35m 58.3s 35° 22' 35" Satellite 0.04 438 km 32%
29/11/2006 05:44:09 95° 49° 13h 41m 27.3s 34° 20' 22" Satellite 0.13 447 km 31%
29/11/2006 05:44:11 95° 48° 13h 46m 36.1s 33° 19' 42" Satellite 0.21 456 km 30%
29/11/2006 05:44:13 95° 46° 13h 51m 26.4s 32° 20' 36" Satellite 0.30 466 km 28%
29/11/2006 05:44:15 95° 45° 13h 55m 59.6s 31° 23' 08" Satellite 0.39 476 km 27%
29/11/2006 05:44:17 95° 44° 14h 00m 17.2s 30° 27' 20" Satellite 0.47 486 km 26%
29/11/2006 05:44:19 95° 42° 14h 04m 20.2s 29° 33' 12" Satellite 0.56 496 km 25%
29/11/2006 05:44:21 95° 41° 14h 08m 09.8s 28° 40' 42" Satellite 0.64 506 km 25%
Starry night screen shot showing position at the two times.
(http://www.macrhon.demon.co.uk/photos/images/starrynight.jpg)
Compared to mine.
(http://www.macrhon.demon.co.uk/photos/images/DSC_9643.1.jpg).
It looks like the Ephemeris are pretty spot on,
You can even see the trail fading.
Haven quite worked out how to measure the trail and convert to a magnitude, but using photoshop and taking a mean of the trail the brighter end is 44.95 and the darker end is 36.44.
Nice one Mac