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ISS

philhas

By philhas
in Observing - Lunar

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nightvision

nightvision

Posted
Posted
hoping to see iss tonight. Stellerium says starts 12:47ish in west, just above vega looking south at 12:52 and setting east at 12:57ish... Am i right?

which power eyepiece should a use?

Help please don't want to miss it

You are correct, you would be best using a some bins, I have managed to see it in 12" dob at low mag but that was a lucky glimpse. You can see it with naked eye and bins work well. It moves quite fast and is usually very bright. :) Best views seem to be during twilight.

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Astrokev

Astrokev

Posted
Posted
thanks, might use bins since its the first time looking for it but set scope to where its closest just before it reaches vega and have a peak

At it's brightest you won't have to look for it. In fact you'll find it difficult to miss!

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rabbithutch

rabbithutch

Posted
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Try plugging your observing location into Calcsky.com

Helen

Admittedly, I'm not too quick with these tools; but I cannot figure out how to get calsky.com to tell me if the ISS transits across the moon at my location.

Could someone please tell me how to get calsky.com to do this?

The reason I'm asking is that I think I saw the ISS on the first or second night I had my scope. I was looking at the full moon and learning how to operate the scope and dob mount. I saw some satellite pass very quickly across the face of moon, but I don't know what satellite it was. Based on the size of the image, I believe that it must have been the ISS. I definitely was not looking for satellites. I was so surprised when I saw that recognizable shape, with its spread of solar collectors looking like wings on some insect, I was certain of it being a satellite.

My experience was in February past. The moon was full around the 18th or 19th. I would like to use calsky information to find out if what I saw was actually the ISS.

If it was, it proves the theorem about blind squirrels finding acorns.

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Astrokev

Astrokev

Posted
Posted
Admittedly, I'm not too quick with these tools; but I cannot figure out how to get calsky.com to tell me if the ISS transits across the moon at my location.

Could someone please tell me how to get calsky.com to do this?

Rabbithutch -

First of all, make sure you have your Calsky location set correctly and accurately (ideally, for lunar and solar transits you'll need to have the location accurate to less than 100m or so).

Then - navigate in Calsky to "Satellites" - "International Space Station".

At the top of that page, select a duration of 4-5 days (or longer).

Scroll down the page to the "Set satellite events for your location" box.

Clear the "Show satellite passes" tick-box.

Tick the "Only Sun/Moon events" tick box.

Click the blue "Go" button.

This will then list all the sun/moon close fly-by's and transits visible within a distance of your location. To widen/narrow your search, select an appropriate "Maximum distance...." radio button in the same dialog box as above.

If there is a transit visible, choose the transit you're interested in and click on the blue "-->Map" that you should see after the "Centreline, closest point", also in blue.

This will open a google map showing the path of the transit centreline. Click on the red squares on the centreline for more information.

Have fun.

Hope this helps

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franco

franco

Posted
Posted

I bellieve I saw the ISS a couple of weeks ago, caught a glimpse of what i thought was a really bright star in the distance, then noticed it was moving pretty fast, I have seen a number of satalites before but never as bright as this one, however as it moved across the sky and avoe me it seemed to get dimmer and dimmer, very interesting to witness

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Astrokev

Astrokev

Posted
Posted

For the additional benefit of those who may still be struggling to know when the ISS will be visible, as previously posted, CalSky.com is probably the best site to predict transits of the sun and moon.

For general passes across the sky, www.spaceweather.com is a great site and is very accurate (providing you enter an accurate location of course).

Hope this helps some folks

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rabbithutch

rabbithutch

Posted
Posted
First of all, make sure you have your Calsky location set correctly and accurately (ideally, for lunar and solar transits you'll need to have the location accurate to less than 100m or so).

Then - navigate in Calsky to "Satellites" - "International Space Station".

At the top of that page, select a duration of 4-5 days (or longer).

Scroll down the page to the "Set satellite events for your location" box.

Clear the "Show satellite passes" tick-box.

Tick the "Only Sun/Moon events" tick box.

Click the blue "Go" button.

This will then list all the sun/moon close fly-by's and transits visible within a distance of your location. To widen/narrow your search, select an appropriate "Maximum distance...." radio button in the same dialog box as above.

If there is a transit visible, choose the transit you're interested in and click on the blue "-->Map" that you should see after the "Centreline, closest point", also in blue.

This will open a google map showing the path of the transit centreline. Click on the red squares on the centreline for more information.

Thanks for the instructions, Kevin.

I was able to follow them down to the point of the second quote above. I don't see the "Centreline, closest point" and other information on my screen. I've enclosed a couple of screenshots to show what I see.

Perhaps there are settings or options that I must set?

Again, thank you very much for the assistance.

post-21515-133877618837_thumb.jpg

post-21515-133877618842_thumb.jpg

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Astrokev

Astrokev

Posted
Posted
Thanks for the instructions, Kevin.

I was able to follow them down to the point of the second quote above. I don't see the "Centreline, closest point" and other information on my screen. I've enclosed a couple of screenshots to show what I see.

Perhaps there are settings or options that I must set?

Again, thank you very much for the assistance.

Hi,

The reason is because you have the "show satellite passes" tickbox ticked. This is therefore showing you all the passes of the ISS across the sky, and not just the ones that are close to, or transit, the sun and moon. However, regardless of this, from your screenshot it looks like there are no transits visible in the search period you have specified.

Untick the "show all passes" tickbox, try increasing the duration period to say "2 months" (at the top of the page), and maybe select a "maximum distance to centreline" of 200km. This should then show just the close solar/lunar passes and transits for the next 2 months that are visible within 200km of your home. Probably further than you want to travel, but it should at least show you the maps etc.

Transits happen in cycles. When I did my recent transit photographs (posted in the Imaging - Widefield....) SGL section, there were several transits visible over the course of a week or so, followed by several weeks when none were visible at all.

Apologies for the long winded reply - Hope this helps

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