Meteors and ISS

[george7378]

I saw the ISS at 21:47 last night, and decided to observe it through my scope. I used a magnification of 120X, and observed it as it passed right overhead. When it was at the zenith, I could see all four large solar arrays clearly (two on either side) which had a slightly brown/orange colour, and I could also see the contrasting white truss in the middle, with the little cluster of modules in the centre. I also saw two radiators either side of the module complex, parallel to the solar panels (from this image, I think they were the S1 and S0 truss radiators). I could see this detail despite having to manually track with my Dobsonian, while keeping my eye glued to the eyepiece and trying to walk around my scope as I pulled it from west to east! I would love to have some kind of tracking motor for my scope to keep it steady - I would probably be able to see individual modules and more details on the solar panels and radiators then.

I also saw some very bright, fast meteors (I guess they were Lyrids) which was really nice, as I wasn't expecting to see any. I did see something very strange though - I looked up from my scope at about 22:40 (21:40UT) and saw a glowing line of light in the sky about halfway between Cassiopeia and Lyra, a bit bigger than the full Moon. I watched it for about a minute, and it gradually faded from view. It was quite bright at the start, and was hanging just above the trees. I think it could have been an ion trail from a meteor which must have passed over just before I looked up from my scope. Did anyone else see this? It was in the North-east at about 22:40.

Aside from these events, I got my first view of the Ring Nebula this year (I hadn't realised how much I missed Lyra) and even though it was low down, I could see the the bright outer ring with the faint inner nebulosity very well - I could even observe it with direct vision at 240X. I can't wait for it to get higher up!

Saturn was beautiful as always too - I could see the Cassini division nicely, and I think I may have seen the faint inner C ring too - where the rings crossed the planet, I could see a thin, dark outline crossing the planet just above the ring line.

It was a really lovely warm Spring night, and I saw some of the beautiful Summer sights I enjoyed so much last year (I also beat my personal variable star record - 6 magnitude readings in one night!).

[Nexus 6]

Hi George, nice to see the conditions were ok for you, here in Barton they were terrible with only the major stars visable, can only conclude the smog from Hull was partially to blame.

To be honest its like that for the past few nights now so has scuppered any chance to get out for an hour or two

Hope it may be ok for tonight

[Celinibellini]

I watched the ISS as well yesterday, with my modest binos 10x50.. I could clearly see a yellowish rectangular shape

[hayju01]

I watched ISS yesterday and tonight with naked eye, I was really pleased can't say that the rest of my family were as impressed as I was with comments like 'Is that it??' hey ho! each to their own :-)