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Post by oldgeek on Nov 27, 2017 18:30:56 GMT -5
So I have this ultra cool App for my android phone called ISS Detector. The app tracks objects like the ISS and Iridium communication satellites and notifies you when there is a chance for you to see the object based on your location. The app also does a VERY good job of helping you find the object as it enters your field of view. What you see is actually sunlight reflecting off the object but it is still cool IMO.
So I was sitting at Scootopia when the app alerted me to a flyover of the ISS. I stepped outside and the app showed me where to look for the object. I made a quick video of a portion of the fly over of the ISS that actually looks pretty good on my phone, but the upload to youtube looks a little disappointing. It was quite bright and moving at a pretty fast rate as soon as it came over the horizon. The event lasted about 6 min.
Look for the small dot just over halfway up the screen on the right. you can see it best just after I move to the left side of the wires. at that point look for it between the wires and the moon. As it approached the moon my camera started trying to focus on the moon or something so I stopped trying to video it at that point.
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Post by spaz12 on Nov 27, 2017 18:42:40 GMT -5
Haha, my eyes/brain saw ISIS detector and I was, like  |
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Post by 90GTVert on Nov 27, 2017 19:33:22 GMT -5
I need alerts like that. I always intend to look for rocket launches from Wallops, or ISS passing, and whatever else may be out there... and inevitably I forget every time. The one time recently that I did remember to watch for a rocket launch, I found out later that it was cancelled. lol Oh well, the most impressive part of the sky to me is still the stuff that we had no part in making. I enjoy the times that I can walk out of the back door and clearly see the blue-ish and red-ish glows of Venus and Mars. Shame it would take so long to get there at 35MPH on my little scoots.  |
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Post by bluegoatwoods on Nov 29, 2017 1:23:40 GMT -5
"What you see is actually sunlight reflecting off the object but it is still cool IMO." -oldgeek But don't forget that this really does mean that you are looking directly at this magnificent machine as it flies over. That's pretty cool in itself.
I managed to see a Skylab flyover sometime in it's early days. 1973 or 74, I suppose. It was known before that that you could actually see satellites going overhead. But they were tiny. Skylab would have been among the first pretty large structures to watch. The Soviets were launching early Salyut stations about then. And they'd have been in the same size range as Skylab. But I don't recall ever hearing talk about looking out for a sighting of one of them.
And thinking about Skylab and Salyuts and such dredges up something from my memory. And I wonder how accurate my memory is. In 1971 (I think), three cosmonauts in an early Soyuz spacecraft were suffocated on re-entry due to a failed hatch seal. And I believe that mission included the first docking of a Soyuz with the first Salyut. The very first steps, in other words, of the entire space station concept. Any other children of the 60s out there who can tell me if I'm remembering right?
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Post by oldgeek on Nov 30, 2017 7:45:37 GMT -5
"What you see is actually sunlight reflecting off the object but it is still cool IMO." -oldgeek But don't forget that this really does mean that you are looking directly at this magnificent machine as it flies over. That's pretty cool in itself.
I managed to see a Skylab flyover sometime in it's early days. 1973 or 74, I suppose. It was known before that that you could actually see satellites going overhead. But they were tiny. Skylab would have been among the first pretty large structures to watch. The Soviets were launching early Salyut stations about then. And they'd have been in the same size range as Skylab. But I don't recall ever hearing talk about looking out for a sighting of one of them.
And thinking about Skylab and Salyuts and such dredges up something from my memory. And I wonder how accurate my memory is. In 1971 (I think), three cosmonauts in an early Soyuz spacecraft were suffocated on re-entry due to a failed hatch seal. And I believe that mission included the first docking of a Soyuz with the first Salyut. The very first steps, in other words, of the entire space station concept. Any other children of the 60s out there who can tell me if I'm remembering right? Your close enough! After you post I ended up searching Soviet/US space stuff...for about 2 hours. I believe the event you are talking about happened in 1969, and it was determined that a cabin vent valve malfunctioned as they undocked from the salyut module allowing the capsule to depressurize. And you are also correct that it was the first time a manned capsule docked with another in space. The Soviets had a long list of firsts in the "space race". They got a boost from the German scientist and engineers they rounded up . The Germans were advanced in rocket development. |
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Post by jbjhillbilly on Nov 30, 2017 17:25:42 GMT -5
There's some great pics on a few of the astronomy sites where guys use their astrophotography rigs to get shots of the ISS.
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Post by oldgeek on Dec 3, 2017 18:13:13 GMT -5
There's some great pics on a few of the astronomy sites where guys use their astrophotography rigs to get shots of the ISS. I took a look at those links and some others....pretty cool! I have had this app for quite a while now, but I just recently turned on the 5 minute notification that tells you of an upcoming opportunity. I have seen the ISS 2 times now, and I just saw my first Iridium satellite flare.  The flare was a -4.3 intensity and lasted just a few seconds. It was VERY bright especially at its peak, and i saw it easily in the still lit evening sky. If I did not know what it was I would have thought I just saw a falling star. What can I say, I am easily amused. |
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Post by jbjhillbilly on Dec 8, 2017 3:10:27 GMT -5
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Post by km4nxa on Dec 26, 2017 15:56:19 GMT -5
Got my license to operate ham radio little over two years ago. Great thing to get into if you ever have the chance. That app is used by many other operators. Using the right setup you can have a short conversation, called a qso in ham terms, with astronauts on the iss. This gives a good explanation of it, www.ariss.org/contact-the-iss.html |
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The flare was a -4.3 intensity and lasted just a few seconds. It was VERY bright especially at its peak, and i saw it easily in the still lit evening sky. If I did not know what it was I would have thought I just saw a falling star.
The flare was a -4.3 intensity and lasted just a few seconds. It was VERY bright especially at its peak, and i saw it easily in the still lit evening sky. If I did not know what it was I would have thought I just saw a falling star.