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Index of Subjects Sherman Williams wrote: > The space station is back in the evening sky and it seems like it may > be a clear night tonight, Jan 31. Have a look. > > Shortly after 6:51 p.m. the ISS should be seen coming out of the > southwest and reaching a peak of 49 degrees shortly after 6:52 p.m., > nicely up in the east side of south, passing just above Orion. > > What is really interesting is that seconds later the light from ISS > gets eclipsed from us when it enters the edge of Earth's shadow. As > this happens, ISS is just below Mars (the brightest natural object, > high in the SE), and just above Betelgeuse (the bright "armpit" star > of Orion). Both Mars and Betelgeuse shine with reddish light. Mars > by reflected sunlight, just like the space station. Betelgeuse is > an old star, shining by its own light, the result of nuclear fusion. > > The spacestation is passing just off the south and eastern shore of > N.S.( about half a length of N.S. offshore), about 380 km above Earth > surface. We see it almost real time. Light from Mars is taking about 6 > minutes to reach us (about 77 percent of the Sun's distance from us). > Light from Betelgeuse requires about 500 years to reach us (520 ly > away from us). > > ISS makes a number of good passes during the next two weeks. Check the > schedule here: http://web.mac.com/sherm39/iWeb/Site/ISS_Page.html > > > Sherman Williams > shermw@xcountry.tv <mailto:shermw@xcountry.tv> > > Was it my imagination, or did the space station appear larger and > brighter than on other sightings? If so, why - was it closer to us > this time? Eleanor Lindsay > Eleanor Lindsay
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