06:02
Mr. Asim Rajput
The word from Houston is that NASA managers have settled on April 29th for space shuttle Endeavour's final launch. That is timed so that the orbiter can basically chase down the International Space Station and deliver its billion-dollar cargo, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.
Not coincidentally, these shuttle launches also coincide with periods when the ISS repeatedly passes over North The united states in the hours after sundown. So not only do you get a chance to see the mammoth, football-field-size assembly glide across the evening sky, but you also might glimpse the shuttle in hot orbital pursuit.
I am always a small surprised when I run in to skywatchers who have seldom seen the ISS pass overhead, because it is slam-dunk simple to spot in the event you know where and when to look. Due to its comparatively low orbit, 360 kilometres up, the spacecraft circles Earth about 16 times each day. They can see it whenever we are in darkness on the ground and the spacecraft is still in sunlight which means the hours after sundown or before dawn. Sighting predictions for your location are a click away.
Whenever the space station cruises overhead, it is usually travelling west to east, the direction of its motion around Earth. However, depending on the specific pass, it could be going northwest to southeast, southwest to east, and so forth. Although it is zipping along at 8 kilometres per second, you'll see that it takes a couple of minutes to cross the sky. Look for a bright steady beacon that is gliding along a smooth, stately path not a fast flash like a meteor.
So sometime in the next couple of weeks, head outside and wave to the station's three cosmonauts and astronauts as they coast overhead. The ISS is now so immense the size of a footy field, including the finish zones that you can detect its shape through a first rate pair of binoculars.
When the first station module reached orbit way back in 1998, I pinged a quantity of my NASA contacts to see if somebody had calculated how bright the space station would appear five times all the pieces came together. Surprisingly, no knew. But now that it is tricked out (pending Endeavour's final additions), the answer appears to be about magnitude -3.8. That outshines every nighttime star and every planet except Venus.
Not coincidentally, these shuttle launches also coincide with periods when the ISS repeatedly passes over North The united states in the hours after sundown. So not only do you get a chance to see the mammoth, football-field-size assembly glide across the evening sky, but you also might glimpse the shuttle in hot orbital pursuit.
I am always a small surprised when I run in to skywatchers who have seldom seen the ISS pass overhead, because it is slam-dunk simple to spot in the event you know where and when to look. Due to its comparatively low orbit, 360 kilometres up, the spacecraft circles Earth about 16 times each day. They can see it whenever we are in darkness on the ground and the spacecraft is still in sunlight which means the hours after sundown or before dawn. Sighting predictions for your location are a click away.
Whenever the space station cruises overhead, it is usually travelling west to east, the direction of its motion around Earth. However, depending on the specific pass, it could be going northwest to southeast, southwest to east, and so forth. Although it is zipping along at 8 kilometres per second, you'll see that it takes a couple of minutes to cross the sky. Look for a bright steady beacon that is gliding along a smooth, stately path not a fast flash like a meteor.
So sometime in the next couple of weeks, head outside and wave to the station's three cosmonauts and astronauts as they coast overhead. The ISS is now so immense the size of a footy field, including the finish zones that you can detect its shape through a first rate pair of binoculars.
When the first station module reached orbit way back in 1998, I pinged a quantity of my NASA contacts to see if somebody had calculated how bright the space station would appear five times all the pieces came together. Surprisingly, no knew. But now that it is tricked out (pending Endeavour's final additions), the answer appears to be about magnitude -3.8. That outshines every nighttime star and every planet except Venus.
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