Just watched the ISS pass over. - Page 2

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Just watched the ISS pass over. (Page 2 of 2)

Posted: 8/29/2017 9:14:20 PM EDT

[#1]

Sound stage hologram is what you saw.

Posted: 8/29/2017 9:21:54 PM EDT

[#2]

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Check out Heavens Above. Tells you when and where to look for all kinds of stuff.

Check this out

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Great site, more than just ISS.

Posted: 8/29/2017 9:23:11 PM EDT

[#3]

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That is some seriously cool shit, if true.

Got to put you on the spot then..... You talked to astronauts, via radio, while they where in orbit?

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I talked briefly to the MIR on 145.550 in the 1990s while driving using nothing but a 1/4 wave antenna and a 50 watt Kenwood. That was a bit of a surprise.

That is some seriously cool shit, if true.

Got to put you on the spot then..... You talked to astronauts, via radio, while they where in orbit?

Yes, it has been a long time (1997 I believe) and was John Blaha KC5TZQ if I recall correctly. It was a very brief QSO where he acknowledged by call but said he had to go. I can still recall it like I'm there. I was in a blue 1991 Le Baron with a Kenwood TM-251. It was a cloudy day, sort of cool, I was on 13th Street and pulled into the local hospital lot real quick before I got so I wouldn't have a wreck.

Another interesting fact is that you could leave a radio on 143.625 and just wait. That was the FM downlink for voice comms for the Russians. The audio was phenomenal (wideband FM). You could hear every creak and shuffle. I don't know Russian so I don't know what they said but it was very clear.

I used to have a recording of the "Go with throttle up" or whatever it was they would say at one certain point on the Shuttle at launch. It was pon 269.XXX or something like that. I heard that here in Kansas from Florida.

EDIT: 259.700 I believe it was.

Posted: 8/29/2017 9:24:30 PM EDT

[#4]

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Seen it a couple times, pretty awesome

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Last month we watched it several nights in a row.

Posted: 8/29/2017 9:30:32 PM EDT

[#5]

I'm spoiled I watch it all the time. Our sky is yuuuuuuge and crystal clear most of the time.

Posted: 9/27/2017 11:14:01 PM EDT

[#6]

Tonight's consecutive transits, captured in a single frame. 90 minutes apart.

ISS Double Transit 20170927_Short by FredMan, on Flickr

Posted: 9/27/2017 11:45:11 PM EDT

[#7]

Driving to the rifle range, to shoot M1 Garands, I worked the ISS, . . . mobile, they sent me a confirmation postcard ( QSL card )

this website tracks the orbit...

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Posted: 9/28/2017 12:20:36 AM EDT

[#8]

Watched the best pass I've seen yet last night, Super bright and lasted over 5 minutes.

Posted: 9/28/2017 12:22:46 AM EDT

[#9]

Cool story op!

A few years ago l was walking to work around 9:30 pm. During the westward leg of my journey l spied not one but two bright dots about one third of the way above the horizon.

Both were moving in a southerly direction at the same speed. It was the ISS and the Russian capsule that had recently been launched.

I've seen many satellites and the ISS several times in my life but l had never seen two objects in space closing in on each other, before or since.

Posted: 9/28/2017 12:30:47 AM EDT

[#10]

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Saw that many years ago. One of the coolest things I've seen.

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Best one I ever saw was watching the ISS pass over with the Shuttle following right behind it.

Saw that many years ago. One of the coolest things I've seen.

I saw A space station and a shuttle as well but I am not sure if it was MIR or ISS.

It would have been around '96 - '98

Wonder if I can find that out.

Posted: 9/28/2017 12:31:26 AM EDT

[#11]

Nice

Posted: 9/28/2017 1:05:34 AM EDT

[#12]

I've seen many ISS passes. I also saw a bunch of ISS and shuttle passes, the two being separated but close together at the time, either before or after docking/undocking. Too cool. Even saw one shuttle and ISS pass cross in front of the moon early one morning.

Heavens Above is a great tool. It helps to have an accurate timepiece, especially for Iridium flares, and to have your exact coordinates plugged into the site. Find your home or observing location on Google Maps or such, record the coordinates shown on the page. Enter those into the location box on Heavens Above's site, then save it to your favorites. Give it a name to remember it. It will be there for future use. For seeing the ISS just your town is good enough, for best prediction for Iridiums, exact coordinates are best. For both, under Magnitude, negative numbers are brighter than positive. Iridiums can hit -8 or -9 mag, which is almost painfully bright to see.

BTW, the Iridium flares will be going away--older sats are being replaced by new ones, and the new ones don't have the reflective panels that produce the flares on the older ones.

Posted: 9/28/2017 1:29:25 AM EDT

[#13]

Saw it as I was leaving work tonight. Stopped and watched for a few, surprised on how bright it was even watching it in the city.

Sir James...

Posted: 9/28/2017 1:37:56 AM EDT

[#14]

I got to see the shuttle chasing down the ISS one night it was really cool.

Posted: 9/28/2017 2:09:33 AM EDT

[#15]

It's going to pass by me shortly. I'm going to see if I can get a glance.

Posted: 9/28/2017 7:44:21 AM EDT

[#16]

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Anyone know why its orbit is like that?

I'm imagining the map superimposed on the globe, and it still isn't making sense to me.

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this might help...

go to http://www.heavens-above.com/ and look at the current position. It's on a sort of a diagonal orbit

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Posted: 9/28/2017 7:57:33 AM EDT

[#17]

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Its really fast.

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17,000ish mph

Posted: 9/28/2017 8:01:28 AM EDT

[#18]

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The only available viewing time for me was yesterday.

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https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

Sign up for text alerts for your location. Has been fun for us and is spot on for times.

The only available viewing time for me was yesterday.

Go ahead and sign up. I signed up a while back, and totally forgot about it. I had almost a month gap between flyovers.

From the 20th. ISS over KATL 20 Sept 17

Posted: 9/28/2017 8:06:01 AM EDT

[#19]

Col. Warlock, is the guy I talked to, while driving to the rifle range. Used my friend's Yaesu FT-7900, mounted in an F-150

fast fwd to about 10:40

Space Station Crew Uses HAM Radio to Call Earth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h73EYcyszf8

Posted: 9/28/2017 8:36:50 AM EDT

[#20]

It's also cool to see their APRS beacon. I'd love to talk to the guys sometime.

Posted: 9/28/2017 5:35:27 PM EDT

[#21]

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https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/sl2-7-633a.jpg

Saw it as I was leaving work tonight. Stopped and watched for a few, surprised on how bright it was even watching it in the city.

Sir James...

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You gotta let me try your time machine...

Oh, and last night's dual orbit with star trails. Left the camera clicking away while I waited for the second pass.

ISS Double Transit 20170927_Long-2 by FredMan, on Flickr

Posted: 9/28/2017 8:32:48 PM EDT

[#22]

I watching the ISS pass overhead right now.

Surprising how quick it moves.

Posted: 9/28/2017 8:48:37 PM EDT

[#23]

I've watched it fly over a couple of times. It is pretty cool to see.

Posted: 9/28/2017 8:54:10 PM EDT

[#24]

How big is it ?

Posted: 9/28/2017 9:00:14 PM EDT

[#25]

Just went out and watched a 4 min pass. Looked at it through a NOD this time, pretty cool.

Posted: 9/28/2017 9:19:05 PM EDT

[#26]

Man, that's really cool.

Posted: 9/28/2017 9:19:54 PM EDT

[#27]

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Quoted: How big is it ?

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Think football stadium.

Posted: 9/28/2017 9:27:30 PM EDT

[#28]

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Cool story op!

A few years ago l was walking to work around 9:30 pm. During the westward leg of my journey l spied not one but two bright dots about one third of the way above the horizon.

Both were moving in a southerly direction at the same speed. It was the ISS and the Russian capsule that had recently been launched.

I've seen many satellites and the ISS several times in my life but l had never seen two objects in space closing in on each other, before or since.

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That's incredible and VERY rare !

Thanks to those who revived this thread, spaceflight to me is amazing and I have been following it since I was a young boy in the early 60's.

Being able to visually verify the ISS passing over and see the solar panel reflection with the naked eye is something that I never though I would see.

Right place and right time and all that.

Posted: 9/28/2017 9:43:37 PM EDT

[#29]

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That's incredible and VERY rare !

Thanks to those who revived this thread, spaceflight to me is amazing and I have been following it since I was a young boy in the early 60's.

Being able to visually verify the ISS passing over and see the solar panel reflection with the naked eye is something that I never though I would see.

Right place and right time and all that.

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Spaceflight is amazing.

For all the stupid shit we pay taxes for, I'd love to give NASA more money.

(On the condition it's used for space exploration and not climate change.)

Posted: 9/28/2017 10:00:55 PM EDT

[#30]

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https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/sl2-7-633a.jpg

Saw it as I was leaving work tonight. Stopped and watched for a few, surprised on how bright it was even watching it in the city.

Sir James...

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Pretty sure that's a pic of SKYLAB

....which fell to earth in 1979

Posted: 9/28/2017 11:56:11 PM EDT

[#31]

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Pretty sure that's a pic of SKYLAB

....which fell to earth in 1979

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It is Sklyab. I thought the poster was trying to be funny or I'd have said something. The ISS has grown a lot over the years, I think this is a fairly recent configuration:

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It's the size of a football field. It is easily visible from Earth, and is quite bright during a near pass.

Posted: 9/29/2017 12:12:10 AM EDT

[#32]

Watched it in Michigan too.

Have seen it several times. If you look with binoculars etc you can actually see some of the solar panel arrays and other stuff sticking off of it.

J-

Posted: 9/29/2017 12:13:08 AM EDT

[#33]

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I'm not sure why they chose the angle for the orbit they did. Could be so that the orbit passes over the launch facilities of the various countries that partnered to build it... namely the USA and Russia.

As for why it progresses around and isn't always going over the same places on the ground... The Earth is rotating underneath it.

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Your correct, the path it flies in orbit is so it's within the path of launches from Cape Canaveral, and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Overall technically a odd orbit I suppose, but it works for both nations.

Posted: 9/29/2017 12:31:03 AM EDT

[#34]

What is also neat is the EST launches from around 6pm-8pm from Florida, folks in the UK/Ireland area actually have recorded footage of the second stage cut off/Dragon deployment, and you can see the covers over the solar panels getting jettisoned, and panels deployed as the Cargo Dragons chase the ISS down.

I know it's not much overall I guess, but seeing space flight in action is a big reason Space X is so liked, regardless of the owners business practices in other realms.

At the end of the day it's all neat stuff period though.

Posted: 9/30/2017 10:17:31 PM EDT

[#35]

Tonight's ISS transit from central VA. Ground plot was from western Wisconsin to central Ontario. Note the meteor at the transit midpoint.

ISS Transit 20170930 by FredMan, on Flickr

Posted: 10/1/2017 8:26:23 PM EDT

[#36]

really cool website for tracking ISS and other birds

http://www.n2yo.com/space-station/

Posted: 10/1/2017 8:50:29 PM EDT

[#37]

Never tire of watching satellites. The first I saw was Project Echo.

Several of us listened to Sputnik 1 on our ham radio receivers. The Russians transmitted on frequencies just above the National Bureau of Standards station WWV to make them easy to spot because dial calibration on receivers of the late '50s were not exactly noted for their accuracy.