Update: I got pictures!
Astropixie notes that the Space Shuttle just undocked from the Space Station, and Jules Verne, the European cargo carrier, is just a few thousand kilometers away as well.
This means that if one passes overhead, you can see all three in a triple pass!
They’ll be passing the US around 9:00 Mountain time. It’s not hugely favorable for me in Boulder, getting only 23 degrees above the horizon. Worse, I have to look over the city of Boulder to see them, which means a bright sky. Still, I’ll be looking. Check heavens-above.com to see if you’ll get a good view too!
March 25th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Thanks for the “heads up”
OK, I’m leaving now………
March 25th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Whaaaa, waaaaah! ISS and it’s friends won’t be seen from the Vancouver area tonight. Not that one could see it here anyway with the weather. I did see it quite often when I lived just outside Edmonton, Alberta. That will be something to see tonight. I wonder, as the ISS grows in size, how many UFO sightings it will create!?
March 25th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
I checked the time for my view. Happens about 8:00pm (of course).
Given my latitude is further south, I believe the trio will appear higher in the sky for me. Or not. I did get a good view last time, though the shuttle wasn’t distinguishable.
Maybe tonight will be different.
Of course the clouds may not help. One just showed up. We were supposed to be clear! Arrgghh!
As a bonus, I saw that Mars is at the zenith, according to the sky map, at the time of the viewing. Coolness.
March 25th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Spaceweather recently added a satellite flyby tool on their site. You can find it at:
http://spaceweather.com/flybys/
Just enter you postal code and it’ll give you 10 nights of satellite flybys. It includes the name of the satellite, the rise time, direction to look, transit time, max elevation and the magnitude of the satellite.
March 25th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Being farther south does get it up a little higher…up to 41 degrees above the horizon here according to Heavens Above.
Looks promising on the clear skies part also!
March 25th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I’ve been counting down the hours all day in anticipation. Favorable passes and clear skies, things are looking good.
March 25th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Does anyone know the re-entry track for Endeavour tomorrow night? Several months ago, Atlantis passed almost directly overhead of me here near Vancouver. It was at an altitude of over 200,000 feet, and due to the fact that I was watching it “live” on the net, I missed it. Turns out the broadcast on the net is delayed by about 2 minutes. When I was looking outside, it was already somewhere over the Alberta/Montana border. I’m wondering if I would have seen anything anyway at that altitude. That would be an awesome sight to see.
March 25th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Cloudy in that direction for me. Drat!
I did see the ISS and the shuttle in tandem a few years ago. Three together would have been even cooler.
March 25th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
No passes for Shuttle either, just checked Heavens Above..
March 25th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
I realized my error. The sighting for my location should’ve been 10:00pm. Which is even better, as the sky will be dark!
What threw me off was seeing the time for the siting on Heavens Above.
Appearently, there was an 8:00pm sighting. Which I saw!
I only saw the ISS and shuttle. No signs of Verne. But the sun had just set, so maybe later.
What a treat! Two viewings in one night!
March 25th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
“…all three in a triple pass…” meaning that they’ll make three orbits (three passes) and still be close to each other and visible to us lowly groundhogs on each pass? How long is each orbit so if I miss one of the passes I can catch one of the other two?
Oops, maybe that space motorcycle is up there as well.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
It looks like it crosses the evening terminator around Mazatlan, Mexico. Perhaps only Hawaii and Florida will be the only USA locations with a good evening view.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
I saw the ISS and Endeavour from Raleigh, NC at 8:05. Very pretty, the sky wasn’t quite dark, but they were nice and bright. They were low and ducking in and out of trees.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Saw them! Well, two of them, anyway. I think I missed Jules Verne.
Read your posting at 2025 CDT, punched for a prediction, dashed out to parking lot, saw them go over. Streetlamps and partial clouds made it tough, but eventually I spotted them. Thanks!
March 25th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Saw them the night before in Hawaii. Very cool indeed. Would seeing 3 pressurized spacecraft pass over in the same orbit be a first? I suppose its possible to have had a Progress trailing the ISS after an undock in the past, but I can’t recall any such situation.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Thanks for the reminder, BA. I went outside, my six year old daughter followed me out. We were outside about a minute when we say the ATV (about 8:28 PM CST). Oh, and our neighbors were out watching, too. Cool.
So I talked to my daughter about how that was a space ship called Jules Vern and some miscellaneous bits about what it’s supposed to be fore. We watched it cross from the South-Southwest to the Northeast. I was a long trail and quite bright. As bright as any of the stars we could see.
So when it was out of sight we turned our attention once again to the Southwest. And only a moment or two later, or so it seemed, the ISS hove into view. OK, space stations probably don’t hove…. And boy was it bright. Clearly brighter than anything visible in the sky at that moment. And just a few seconds after finding the ISS, we spotted the shuttle shortly behind (moment of confession – my neighbors spotted them both long before I did). So I explained to my daughter what they were, which was which, and so on.
Before these two were completely out of sight, my son, fifteen years old, finally popped his head out and got a look. Actually he had to pop his entire self out. The ISS and Shuttle were behind the roof line from his perspective. As typical of a fifteen year old, he wasn’t so impressed. And he’s seen them before. Been there, done that – you know.
Then after we came in, while watching the history channel a few commercials came on about some upcoming shows and I got to show my daughter what the things we just watched go over head really look like up close.
Then she started explaining to me how her stuffed animals were me, her mother, her, and were in specific parts of the house, and …. well, the attention span of a six year old is only so long.
JBS
March 25th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
I just realized: they’ll be rising into the Earth’s shadow for me! 20 degrees up, and they’ll all fade away! I’m hoping to get pictures. It’s patchy clouds here.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Darn! Really cloudy night in CT.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
It was completely clear here in Los Angeles, so I went outside at 8pm local and saw two of the three cruising right through Leo.
I’ve seen one pass before, but I’ve never seen a double or triple. I was so excited, I was hollering for my whole neighborhood to come out and watch. Now they think I’m nuts, and I don’t care. It was awesome.
I wouldn’t have known to look if you hadn’t posted, Phil. Thank you!
March 25th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Thanks to the Phoenix glare and some badly timed car headlights in my face, I missed the Verne, but there was no missing the ISS/Endeavor. Very, very cool to see.
Wonder how many UFO calls will get placed tonight?
March 25th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Wilw:
I saw only two objects, I think the Shuttle and the ISS. I got pix, and I’ll post them very soon.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Wow, that was cool. I just saw the ISS fly over from here in San Diego (in a well-lit parking lot). According to Heavens Above, the maximum altitude was 78 degrees and the magnitude was -2.5. The shuttle followed, about 38 seconds behind by my watch, at a magnitude of -1.5. They both disappeared into Earth’s shadow, but I was too busy timing things to watch that part of it closely. I missed the ATV.
There’s another good flyover here Thursday evening.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Saw all three objects in Southern Cal… perfectly clear skies. First, the faint Jules Verne module, then a few minutes later the super-bright ISS followed closely behind by the Endeavor. Beautiful as always.
Thanks Phil.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Read your post about 20 minutes before they passed overhead here. I haven’t seen a space station and the shuttle pass overhead since I saw the MIR and a shuttle docked together in the 90s (it looked like an underlined asterix). In the excitement I completely forgot to bring my binoculars this time. When I told them that a space ship was going to pass overhead my older daughter (she’s 4) asked, “Is it going to be loud?” She ended up being more impressed by the toads and airplanes we saw, but they both thought it was more fun then when I dragged them out to see the lunar eclipse.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Watched from USC here, missed the Jules Verne, but saw the ISS and Shuttle. The ISS was clearly the brightest thing in the sky, it was impossible to miss.
How amazing is it that a man made object is the brightest thing in the night sky, second only to the moon? We’ve reordered the hierarchy of the heavens! Now-a-days, people don’t think that much of it, but even as little as a century ago, it would have been called unnatural!
March 25th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
@ Ryan: “How amazing is it that a man made object is the brightest thing in the night sky, second only to the moon? We’ve reordered the hierarchy of the heavens! Now-a-days, people don’t think that much of it, but even as little as a century ago, it would have been called unnatural!”
I know! I was freaking out and telling my wife and son, “I can’t believe that we’re looking at man-made objects — WITH PEOPLE INSIDE THEM — cruising by above our planet.”
I hope I never lose the ability to be blown away by things like this. For all our failings, we’re a pretty cool species.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Caught all three here, and the view was lovely. The ISS appeared slightly brighter than I was expecting, just beautiful.
March 25th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Check out my hawesome pix!
March 25th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Oh– one of the first things TLA always asks is, “Are there people on board?”
March 26th, 2008 at 3:31 am
Just curious, is the number (2000 m) given for the distance between the ISS and JV an error on the ESA website on the 20th?
(http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ATV/SEMQ29N5NDF_0.html)
[quote]
Now that the vessel is ‘on the green’ – in a parking orbit 2000 m ahead of the ISS – ATV mission controllers must pace the spacecraft through two pending and crucial demonstration dockings, moving successively closer to the ISS, and then finally go for an actual rendezvous and docking attempt on 3 April.
[/quote]
It’d be a bit close .. right?
(HEARTS)
March 26th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Unfortunately I didn’t get to this post in my feed reader until about 1/2 hour after it passed. Oh well, there’s always next time. Maybe I’ll find my binoculars from the move by then.
After reading the accounts, especially Wil’s account, I was doubly disappointed. For it to be seen in LA is saying something. I spent a couple of months out there last summer, and that place is horrible for stargazing (but great for everything else except maybe breathing and driving).
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