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ISS Passing Over
updated: Dec 10, 2012, 10:23 AM
The International Space Station will make a bright pass across our
southern (ocean) sky tonight, rising in the SW at around 5:59 PM,
and passing to the NE, where it will enter the Earth's shadow at
about 6:03 PM. The bright object nearby when the ISS disappears is
the planet Jupiter.
As a bonus, at 6:57 PM on Wednesday evening, low in the south, there will be a very
bright (magnitude -7) Iridium flare, best seen from Goleta. From
downtown SB, it will be dimmer (mag 4.7), but still the brightest
thing in the sky. It will be visible from about Carpinteria to
Refugio along the coast, and will still be a respectable mag -2.4
from Santa Ynez. Look for it about 24 degrees, or two fist widths
at arm's length, above the horizon.
The brightness magnitude scale is non-linear, with each step being
about 2.5 times brighter or dimmer. It's also a bit confusing,
because smaller magnitudes are brighter. Jupiter is currently
around mag -3, and Aldebaran, the orange star next to it, is about
mag +1.
Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)
COMMENT 352504
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2012-12-10 06:04 PM |
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Excellent! I have never seen a non-lunar satellite before so that was quite cool.
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PAMSB
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2012-12-10 07:20 PM |
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Thanks for the reminder...was really, really bright tonight!
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COMMENT 352559
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2012-12-10 07:53 PM |
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I saw it too, did anyone else see the jet airplane with it's lights flashing pass right underneath? Although it passed about 218 miles underneath.
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PATRICK
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2012-12-11 08:28 AM |
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We saw it -- thanks for the (literal) "heads-up". I didn't know what an iridium flare was, but while waiting for the ISS to pass into view, I was looking high in the sky, probably SSE and saw something that looked like this:
http://www.satobs.org/iridium.html
I probably was hallucinating, but I'd swear that I could see the satellite's reflector (like in the lower photo on that link). It was awesome.
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RDH
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2012-12-11 12:05 PM |
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Thank you for this very informative reminder.
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COMMENT 352880
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2012-12-11 02:08 PM |
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I missed it :( When's the next night time pass over?
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ESL TEACHER
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2012-12-11 03:22 PM |
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It's not much use posting this on Tuesday, after the fact. I have noticed this happening before. Please give us the alert in advance.
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57% of comments on this page were made by Edhat Community Members.
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