Shuttle and ISS...

[Rick]

I went out to watch last night's ISS pass, and saw the Shuttle on the same track a couple of minutes ahead of ISS too.

This evening's best pass takes ISS into eclipse before it reaches its highest elevation at 21:26 BST.

Tomorrow evening there's a reasonable ISS pass between 20:11 and 20:16 BST.

Sunday evening there's a good ISS pass between 20:35 and 20:42 BST.

Monday's best pass is just after 21:00 BST.

[Simon E]

So Rick, what part of the Sky you looing in and at what time, It did start to cloud over about 10:30 round my way.

si

[MarkS]

Thanks Rick. 

How on earth did I manage to miss these? 

[Rick]

Typically, from here, ISS rises to the west and sets to the east, more or less. When it's illuminated ISS is too bright to miss against a dark sky. Last night's was at about 9pm, rising a bit south of west, and at highest elevation (about 50 degrees) just east of south. They both passed very close to Altair. The following, extracted from http://www.chocky.myzen.co.uk/oas/predictiss.txt (all times below are UTC, not BST), has been chopped to leave only the passes I mentioned.

Code Select Expand

Date       Rising at    Peak elevation      Setting    Height Satellite
Y M D  Time      Az.  Time      Az. El  Time      Az. (peak) Name
======  ========= ===  ========= === ==  ========= === ====== =========

090910  19:56:54  240  20:01:40  158 48  20:06:33*  77        ISS

090911  20:21:32  256  20:26:18* 173 81  20:31:18*  81        ISS

090912  19:11:01  241  19:15:54  154 50  19:20:47*  77        ISS

090913  19:35:39  257  19:40:25  201 82  19:45:25*  81        ISS

090914  20:00:17  269  20:05:10    7 81  20:10:03*  89        ISS

You can get good specific predictions for your location from Heavens Above, provided you register.

How on earth did I manage to miss these? 

Your mind was on Jupiter...