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This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --Boundary_(ID_+2Aji37hBjelV1qFsG/dew) Content-type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT What a great sight. The sky was clear here in Halifax. They travelled really fast across the sky. I assume the brighter one was the space station? Don Don MacNeill donmacneill@eastlink.ca ----- Original Message ----- From: Sherman Williams To: Naturens ; BLOMIDON NATURALIST LIST Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 3:57 PM Subject: [NatureNS] Space Station passes tonight (Tuesday)with a little star gazing. As mentioned last evening, Space Station is once again visible in the evening sky. Tonight's pass will be interesting to catch because the Shuttle, Discovery will have separated from the Space Station (ISS), so they should appear as separate objects on the same track as they pass. ( http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html ) For Maritime Canadians, the pass should be a nice one (if cloud does not get in the way). The pass begins shortly after 8:44 p.m. appearing out of the SW. It reaches the peak of the pass in the SE at close to 8:47 p.m. and enters Earth shadow in the east about 8:48. At the height of the pass for the Annapolis Valley it will reach about 43 degrees above the SE horizon (about halfway to overhead). If you are NW of the Ann. Valley it will be lower. If SE of me then it will appear higher. See this link for the overhead track. ( http://www.heavens-above.com/gtrack.asp?date=40064.9908457767&lat=45.100&lng=-64.250&alt=54&loc=Avonport&TZ=AST&satid=25544 ) The reflection from the station should get nearly as bright as Venus (Mag minus 3.9) and quite a bit brighter than Jupiter (Mag minus 2.8) In measuring star and planet brightness, more negative is brighter, more positive is dimmer. Vega is Mag 0, Deneb is near Mag +1 For Avonport, the ISS will pass just below the star Altair, in the constellation, AQUILA, The Eagle, which is the southern most part of the Summer Triangle (marked by 3 bright stars: Altair (AQUILA), Deneb (CYGNUS) and Vega (LYRA) (two bright stars near overhead). Vega is brightest and most to the west. Jupiter is the bright star-like light low in the SE.So there is a little star gazing you can do during the pass. Here is a link to a star chart drawn for Avonport (Annapolis Valley view) at the time of the pass. ( http://www.heavens-above.com/PassDetails.asp?SatID=25544&lat=45.100&lng=-64.250&alt=54&loc=Avonport&TZ=AST&Date=40064.9908457767 ) If you note the track the station takes relative to Altair where you live, and compare it to its track for Annapolis Valley viewers, you will be seeing the difference one's Earth surface location makes (a little navigation observation). For Avonport, the station will pass about about 8 degrees below Altair and about 24 degrees above Jupiter (a vertically held fist sighted at arms length against the sky is about a 10 degree angle) There is a 2nd pass about 90+min later but it hits the Earth shadow before it hardly gets above the horizon. There is another great pass tomorrow evening as well. This link will get you pass details. http://web.mac.com/sherm39/iWeb/Site/ISS_Page.html Happy observing, Sherman --Boundary_(ID_+2Aji37hBjelV1qFsG/dew) Content-type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18812"> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY style="WORD-WRAP: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space" bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>What a great sight. The sky was clear here in Halifax. They travelled really fast across the sky. I assume the brighter one was the space station?</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Don</FONT></DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Don MacNeill<BR><A href="mailto:donmacneill@eastlink.ca">donmacneill@eastlink.ca</A></FONT></DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- <DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=sherm@glinx.com href="mailto:sherm@glinx.com">Sherman Williams</A> </DIV> <DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=naturens@chebucto.ns.ca href="mailto:naturens@chebucto.ns.ca">Naturens</A> ; <A title=nature@blomidonnaturalists.ca href="mailto:nature@blomidonnaturalists.ca">BLOMIDON NATURALIST LIST</A> </DIV> <DIV><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, September 08, 2009 3:57 PM</DIV> <DIV><B>Subject:</B> [NatureNS] Space Station passes tonight (Tuesday)with a little star gazing.</DIV></DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px; MIN-HEIGHT: 14px"><BR></DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">As mentioned last evening, Space Station is once again visible in the evening sky. Tonight's pass will be interesting to catch because the Shuttle, Discovery will have separated from the Space Station (ISS), so they should appear as separate objects on the same track as they pass. </DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">( <A href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html">http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html</A> )</DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">For Maritime Canadians, the pass should be a nice one (if cloud does not get in the way). The pass begins shortly after 8:44 p.m. appearing out of the SW. It reaches the peak of the pass in the SE at close to 8:47 p.m. and enters Earth shadow in the east about 8:48. At the height of the pass for the Annapolis Valley it will reach about 43 degrees above the SE horizon (about halfway to overhead). If you are NW of the Ann. Valley it will be lower. If SE of me then it will appear higher. </DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"><BR></DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px"> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">See this link for the overhead track.</DIV> <DIV style="MARGIN: 0px">( <A href="http://www.heavens-above.com/gtrack.asp?date=40064.9908457767&lat=45.100&lng=-64.250&alt=54&loc=Avonport&TZ=AST&satid=25544">http://www.heavens-above.com/gtrack.asp?date=40064.9908457767&lat=45.100&lng=-64.250&alt=54&loc=Avonport&TZ=AST&satid=25544</A> )</DIV> <DI