Happy Anniversary

Venus and Jupiter are moving closer to each other at night after sunset. They are so bright against that dark fall sky. The nights are getting more crisp and cold finally.

Today is the 10th Anniversary of the International Space Station. The International Space Station and Space Shuttle Endeavour are going to be visible here in Jackson for the next couple of nights. I'm hoping for more clear cool nights to catch a glimpse of this marvel streaking through the sky. If you haven't seen it before go to this web page NASA Skywatch, enter in your zip code, select the ISS or shuttle, click weekly sightings and it will give you a list of times that the ISS will be visible in your area.

Here's our info for the week:

------------------------------ Max ---------------------------
___ Local Date/Time ___ Pass _ Elev Approach ___ Departure
ISS Thu Nov 20,08@17:11 05m00s _26_ 10 above _S_ 11 above ENE
ISS Thu Nov 20,08@18:47 01m00s _18_ 16 above WNW 18 above WNW
ISS Fri Nov 21,08@17:39 03m00s _67_ 42 above WSW 19 above NE
ISS Sat Nov 22,08@18:05 03m00s _21_ 15 above WNW 18 above N
ISS Mon Nov 24,08@17:24 03m00s _19_ 14 above WNW 11 above NNE

Pass tells you how long it will be visible in the sky. Max Elev tells how high above the horizon in degrees the satellite will pass, with the ground being zero and the point straight up over your head being 90. The Approach and Departure coordinates tell you approximately how many degrees and which direction the satellite will appear and then disappear.

For example, tonight's first pass of the ISS/Shuttle will appear at about 10° above the horizon facing due south heading northeast rising to 26° before disappearing 11° above the horizon facing east-northeast. This will take 5 minutes to complete the transit. I think the longest pass that I've seen was around 4 minutes.

At 5:11pm I'll be on my way home from work. My co-worker is driving tonight, so I'll have to keep an eye open for it while we're heading home. The shuttle itself won't be a visible entity itself per se, but you will see what looks like a bright "star" moving across the sky at a pretty good clip.

This is an image of the ISS from earth, taken by an amateur astrophotographer.

The current shuttle mission is scheduled for 14 days and we are entering day six today. Earlier this spring after one of the shuttles undocked from the ISS you could see each of them as they passed overhead. It looked like two stars chasing each other. I'll try and remember to post again, if that is going to happen next week.