International Space Station Making Good Flybys Over North America This Week

Coming to a sky near you, the International Space Station (ISS). While it is always up in the sky (obviously), the times line up just right for the ISS to be making some good early evening flybys late enough for dark and early enough so no one should have to stay up much later than usual.

To find ISS flyby times over where you live, go to NASA's website and then select your state, then a nearby city. Upon doing this, a wealth of information will be displayed for your specific location. This data includes: local time, duration of flyby, maximum elevation, degree of first appearance, and degree of disappearance.

With this data, one can plan observations well in advance. The good news is that the ISS is very bright, typically at least -3 magnitude, which is right between Jupiter and Venus. In other words, you can't miss it unless you're standing in a supermarket parking lot.

When sighted, the ISS appears as a white light in the sky that moves slowly (but very clearly) through the sky against the background of fixed stars. Always fun to observe, the ISS can also be photographed with a digital SLR and tripod by following these simple suggestions.

Last but not least, should you decide to shoot the ISS, send the picture to Spaceweather.com, they already have a gallery going.

Want to see what the ISS looks like caught on camera? Go to my astrophoto archive and browse around, as there are sure to be some Shuttle/ISS pictures in there.


Humble requests:

If you found this informative (or at least entertaining), check out my Examiner page for more great stuff. By doing this, you are helping me pay the bills, which I am grateful for.

Don't forget to pass this link along, either.

For something even better, become a follower.

NASA Finds Long-Lost Soviet Lunar Rover

The Lunokhod 1 Rover

NASA launched its Lunar Reconnissance Orbiter last year to scout possible locations for future lunar landings/bases for the now defunct Constellation program. Now, even with Moon missions dead, the Orbiter still circles the Moon. On a recent pass, something from the Cold War era was found: a dead Soviet lunar rover!

Lunokhod 1 landed on the Moon on November 17, 1970 and traveled around the Moon for nearly a year, transmitting back information about components of lunar soil and geography. Hwever, all good things must come to an end. Lunokhod's signal was lost on September 14, 1971 and its location was a mystery for nearly 40 years until just a few days ago when the rover was spotted in high resolution photographs of the lunar surface.

Despite being a dead Cold War relic, Lunokhod still has the potential to help science! One feature of the rover was a large mirror designed to reflect laser beams back to Earth. The Apollo missions planted similar reflectors on the lunar surface, too. In the years since Apollo, these reflectors have established. the fact that the Moon is moving away from the Earth at a rate of 40mm per year.

Now, with Lunokhod 1 found scientists will have yet another vantage point at which to direct laser beams for future study dealing with variations in Einstein's theory of general relativity as laser measurements can measure the Moon's orbit to within a millimeter of accuracy!
Scierntists had long known this potential for the dead rover. as a result, a team led by UC San Diego's Tom Murphy had been searching for the rover for years. Failure to find it caused some fear that the rover had fallen into a ravine or that it had tipped over, making the mirror unusable. As it turns out, the team was merely scouring the wrong location, as the rover was several miles from its estimated location.

Even Russian scientists have taken note of the achievement, with Ruslan Kuzmin commenting that he felt a "deep interior excitement" upon the news that Lunokhod 1 had been found, and further calling the LRO camera "a fantastic instrument."

So, with the Cold War a thing of the past and the rover located, expect its contributions to science to continue for years to come.

Lunokhod 1's final resting place


Up Next:
Canon 28-135IS USM quick review


Humble requests:


If you found this informative (or at least entertaining), check out my Examiner page for more great stuff. By doing this, you are helping me pay the bills, which I am grateful for.


Don't forget to pass this link along, either.


For something even better, become a follower.

Happy 20th Birthday Hubble!

The Hubble Space Telescope

Okay, it's a belated happy birthday to the Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble's 20th birthday was actually on April 24, which was also, ironically, International Astronomy Day, too.

Launched into orbit on April 24, 1990 aboard the shuttle Discovery, Hubble was officially commissioned the next day. Since then, Hubble has not only beamed some of the most spectacular deep space images ever captured back to Earth, but has literally seen 13.7 billion years back in time to a point just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. For all its triumphs, Hubble was not without its growing pains.

The Hubble became something of an embarrassment when it was first sent up into space. The main mirror was faulty. A subsequent shuttle mission was needed to allow astronauts to replace the mirror. new mirror in place, Hubble became fully operational by 1993.

From its height of 353 miles, far above atmospheric disturbances that plague Earth bound telescopes, Hubble has the clearest eye to the universe that is physically possible. It is estimated that Hubble's images are around 10 times clearer than the best Earth scope images. So far, it has photographed over 30,000 objects, including star clusters, nebulae, galaxies, and perhaps most spectacularly, dying stars. Hubble's photos have also helped astronomers discover huge black holes at the center of galaxies, that the universe is expanding at a quickening pace, and the first organic particles in space.

For all its achievements, Hubble is now near the end of its life, as it is scheduled to be replaced in 2014 by the James Webb infrared space telescope.


Humble requests:

If you found this informative (or at least entertaining), check out my Examiner page for more great stuff. By doing this, you are helping me pay the bills, which I am grateful for.

Don't forget to pass this link along, either.

For something even better, become a follower.

Shuttle/ISS Sightings Abound Next Few Days

Tonight at 7:54pm EST, the Space Shuttle will un-dock from the International Space Station. Upon separation, the two celestial voyagers can be seen as companion bright points of light moving slowly across the sky as they orbit the Earth. Needless to say, this can make a great photo opportunity.

Now, there's good and bad news: First, the good: there will be a lot of flybys in the next few days-opportunities abound. Second, these are short duration appearances, a well-timed break in the clouds can make a great photo as, even in the low passes, a lot of sky will be covered.

Now the bad: many of these appearances are at dawn, very close to sunrise, which is bad. The eye will have no problem picking up the Shuttle and ISS, but the a camera in long exposure mode will have a hard time as the longer the shutter is open, the brighter the sky will be and the greater the chance that the streaks of light will be lost in the brightness. Expect to post-process here.

How to take the photos? First, get a tripod. Next, use the remote release of your camera, preferably, or the time delay mode. Stop down the lens and set to low ISO for as long of an exposure as possible . Finally, when the targets appear, fire away. Also, don't forget to shoot RAW just in case!

As encouragement, here's a shot I got this morning at about 6:35am.

Follow the links below to find out when the Shuttle and ISS will be visible.

NE Ohio Flyby Times
Other Locations

Spaceweather

Humble requests:
If you found this informative (or at least entertaining), check out my Examiner page for more great stuff. By doing this, you are helping me pay the bills, which I am grateful for.

Don't forget to pass this link along, either.

For something even better, become a follower.