Space Weather News for May 27, 2011
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SOLAR SAIL FLASHES: NASA's Nanosail-D, the first solar sail to orbit Earth, is flashing as it glides through the night sky. Observers in Europe report luminous peaks as bright as a 1st magnitude star. The irregular period of the flashes suggests that the sail might be tumbling, although no one is certain at this moment what is causing the phenomenon. Sky watchers are encouraged to check the Simple Satellite Tracker for local flyby times and watch this unique spacecraft strobe overhead: http://spaceweather.com/flybys
DON'T FORGET THE SPACE SHUTTLE: Meanwhile, space shuttle Endeavour and the ISS are putting on a show of their own. The docked spacecraft are making a series of brilliant dawn flybys over North America and Europe, providing early risers with a chance to see Endeavour one last time before it returns to Earth for retirement. Tracking them is easy; just use your cell phone: http://simpleflybys.com.
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We can't see it until early morning on 31st May and then successive mornings.
MArk
Here're a selection of possibly visible passes over the next few days.
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
====== ========= === ========= === == ========= === ====== =========
110527 21:55:57 338 22:01:52 45 21 22:07:54* 113 NanoSail-D
110527 23:34:37 329 23:40:40 241 64 23:47:05* 162 NanoSail-D
110528 22:01:54 337 22:08:04 49 28 22:14:22* 122 NanoSail-D
110528 23:40:20 327 23:46:37 247 42 23:52:55* 172 NanoSail-D
110529 22:07:52 336 22:14:10 54 38 22:20:35* 132 NanoSail-D
110529 23:46:17 324 23:52:19 255 29 23:58:37* 182 NanoSail-D
110530 22:13:42 334 22:20:07 59 54 22:26:40* 141 NanoSail-D
110530 23:52:22 320 23:58:01 257 20 00:03:56* 193 NanoSail-D
See also: http://www.chocky.myzen.co.uk/oas/predictions.txt (potentially visible passes)
For ISS: http://www.chocky.myzen.co.uk/oas/predictiss.txt (includes daylight and eclipsed passes)
Folks a significant distance from High Elms will have to work their own predictions out... ;)
Thanks Rick - I wasn't being very clear - I meant we can't see the ISS until 31st May :oops:
Quote from: MarkS on May 27, 2011, 23:48:15Thanks Rick - I wasn't being very clear - I meant we can't see the ISS until 31st May :oops:
I'd figured that from checking my ISS predictions, which have a clean sweep of daylight markers... ;)
You hadn't mentioned NanoSail, so I added it. ;)