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ISS multiple passes - July 6,7,8

Started by MarkS, Jul 02, 2009, 08:35:50

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MarkS


We have just entered a very rich ISS season peaking on 7 July. 

Sun 5 July - 3 consecutive visible passes beginning 2 minutes after midnight
Mon 6 July - 4 consecutive visible passes beginning at 23:13 BST
Tue 7 July - 5 (!!) consecutive visible passes beginning at 22:04 BST
Wed 8 July - 4 consecutive visible passes beginning at 22:28 BST
Thur 9 July - 3 consecutive visible passes beginning at 22:52 BST

Mark

Mike

Wow!! Look forward to plenty of images from you then !
We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology. Carl Sagan

JohnP

How the hell does it manage 5 passes in one night...? Is it flying in a circle over Bromley or something???

Rick

One orbit every 95 minutes or so, but we're nicely placed*1 at the latitude where passes are close to west-east, so several consecutive passes come near enough to be seen. Then add in the current near-midsummer tilt, and add ISS's altitude, and the geometry's good for ISS to be illuminated on every one. Add in that ISS is now bright enough to see in daylight...

*1 If you live near the equator then you get far fewer opportunities to catch visible passes of ISS. Much further North than the UK and you'll never see it.

mickw

Growing Old is mandatory - Growing Up is optional