Satellite viewing hat trick!

[CJSF]

I had a very cool experience last night. I knew there was an Iridium flare for my location (-8 mag forecast) and that about 15 minutes later, Hubble was to go overhead.

Well, as the time neared for the Iridum flare, my wife noticed something very bright to the NNE. It was in the wrong area of sky for the flare, but was obviously something in orbit. Well, as it was traversing, the Iridum flare appeared. Either I blinked and missed the -8 mag (and yes, it was forecast to be that bright for me.. 0.2km from center), or it wasn't that bright. Still ~0 mag or a little less. So that was cool... I said to my wife that the other object HAD to be ISS, but wasn't sure becasue I didn't see it listed on heavens above. Well, we went in and I checked and YES it WAS ISS!

We went back out and saw Hubble at ~1.5 mag.

So 3 bright objects within 15 minutes!

It was SO cool. Now I have the wife hooked on flare/sat watching! She's going out of town to visit some family in NC and wanted the flares for this week for that location prinited! No ISS or HST passes for her, though.

It was wicked awesome!

8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

CJSF

[Maksutov]

Super, isn't it?

Thanks to Heavens Above, one morning I got to see the ISS, Hubble, Envisat, two Iridium flares, a Lacrosse, and a Cosmos carrier all about an hour before sunrise. A busy morning.

It's all a matter of knowing where to look and when.

Of course the most memorable viewing was about three years ago when I watched the shuttle undocking from the ISS while passing directly overhead. It was like a single moving star becoming a double star, and then two separate stars.

I had my neighbors out to look at it. They thought I was nuts re seeing the station and shuttle, but when the spacecraft showed up as predicted, they were really appreciative.

Keep looking up, there's a lot going on up there!

[A Thousand Pardons]

Of course the most memorable viewing was about three years ago when I watched the shuttle undocking from the ISS while passing directly overhead. It was like a single moving star becoming a double star, and then two separate stars.

That is cool. I've watched them chasing each other, but that had to be amazing to your neighbors. I'll bet less than 1% of the world's population has even had a chance to see that--and most of those didn't even know to look.

[tlbs101]

...a Lacrosse, and a Cosmos carrier all about an hour before sunrise.

Uh oh... they're watching you. 8)

[ngc3314]

I had a very cool experience last night. I knew there was an Iridium flare for my location (-8 mag forecast) and that about 15 minutes later, Hubble was to go overhead.

Cool indeed! I've come close to HST and ISS at once, and did manage to have HST and Compton in the same field of vision once. (Going through my mind: "There goes most of the money ever spent on astronomy").

I did get a picture once of two Iridium flares plus an ISS trail passing behind a dome on Mauna Kea... ahh, here it is!