Comments on: Cool picture of Expedition 29 on its way home

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:35:24 +0000

Incidentally, this really rather reminds me of Spock’s funeral and his casket descending to the surface of the Genesis Planet in Star Trek movie II The Wrath of Khan & III ‘ The Search for Spock’ FWIW.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 05:25:22 +0000

@Marco Langbroek, NGC3314 & Tony Mach : Thanks for your informative comments here.

(Surprised to find my own earlier comment makes as much sense as it does given how tired I was and how pickled I’d got last night! Sorry if I end up gushing too much over these or somewhat incoherent at the end of a long night – which, natch, is early morning US time.)

By: Mark Suszko

Mark Suszko — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:58:12 +0000

Is that another object also reentering in the top left of the picture, between the top of the solar panel, and just below the horizon? In the blow-up pic, it sure looks like a reentry trail and not a smear from camera motion. The Soyuz docking adapter, maybe? Or something else falling? Meteorite? Seems to coming in more steeply there.

By: Tony Mach

Tony Mach — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:14:33 +0000

The population on the Caspian Sea is much lower, less lights:
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~pesti/night/

It must be the Black Sea.

And yes, the bright spot is in fact as NGC3314 says Volgograd.

Is that Sevastopol on the lower left?

The bright spot on the right is Astrakhan. No, strike that, that is wrong too.

Ah, I give up. Has the image been mirrored?

By: Tony Mach

Tony Mach — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:58:11 +0000

The bright spot on the tip of left solar array would then be Kiev, right? You can see what would then be the three roads (two to the west, on to the south) to Malyn, Korostyshiv and Bila Tserkva.

[No, I am wrong, see my post below]

By: NGC3314

NGC3314 — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:57:20 +0000

After staring at a nocturnal mosaic image, I think I have it. The bright city to the upper left is Volgograd, and Krasnodar is at the lower left corner. The image just misses Rostov-on-Don and the Sea of Azov, and includes the Black Sea coast between Novorossisk and Batumi. Astro reference – the Russian Academy of Sciences’ 6-meter optical telescope, and 600-meter annular radio telescope, are in that roundish dark area middle right.

By: Marco Langbroek

Marco Langbroek — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:00:14 +0000

I note that the Wolfram Alpha link provides marginally different coordinates for 02:03 UTC, 22 Nov, compared to what I posted in my comment above.
To clarify: the data in my comment above are based on an elset of epoch 11325.96585887 (= Nov 21.97), plugged into Orbitron software (with a check in another program as well, which gives the same coordinates). Can’t explain the slight difference, but perhaps the Wolfram Alpha coordinates might be calculated from an elset dating somewhat earlier on Nov 21.

By: Marco Langbroek

Marco Langbroek — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:57:39 +0000

…and from that (my post above), comparing it with Google Earth, I think what we see in the image is the Black Sea coast of the Republic of Georgia. With the Soyuz capsule over the Caucasus.

By: Marco Langbroek

Marco Langbroek — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:34:52 +0000

I actually think it is the northeastern coast of the Black Sea, not Kaspian Sea.

ISS was at 41.133 N, 38.075 E at that time, over northeast Turkey and the trajectory would take it over the Black Sea and Caucasus before reaching the Kaspian Sea.

ISS trajectory:
UTC LON E LAT N
02:00 27.212 33.860
02:01 30.584 36.369
02:02 34.196 38.819
02:03 38.075 41.133
02:04 42.244 43.287
02:05 46.723 45.259
02:06 51.520 47.021
02:07 56.637 48.547
02:08 62.056 49.807
02:09 67.742 50.777
02:10 73.636 51.434

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:15:33 +0000

Now *that* was S-P-E-C-T-A-C-U-L-A-R!

Awe inspiring. Literally. Wow. Also thankyou.