Flashes in the sky

[Whitters]

Space Weather News for May 27, 2011
http://spaceweather.com

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.

You are subscribed to the Space Weather mailing list, a free service of Spaceweather.com.

New subscribers may sign up for free space weather alerts at http://spaceweather.com/services/ .

[MarkS]

We can't see it until early morning on 31st May and then successive mornings.

MArk

[Rick]

Here're a selection of possibly visible passes over the next few days.

Code Select Expand

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...

[MarkS]

Thanks Rick - I wasn't being very clear - I meant we can't see the ISS until 31st May   

[Rick]

Thanks Rick - I wasn't being very clear - I meant we can't see the ISS until 31st May  

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.