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Viewing shuttle Endeavour & the ISS

dave1978

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dave1978

dave1978

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just spent some time reading through the posts about the ISS etc. Absolutley fascinating to me, so when is the best time to see the ISS? which direction should i be looking? (im in the North West) from what i have read it passes over every 2 hours or so (is this right). Also hope to see this shuttle.

Is it possible to track the ISS with Autostar?

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Vega

Vega

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Tonight is certainly the night.... With shuttle docking tomorrow, it's pass time will certainly be similar to the ISS if not visible in the sky at the same time!

WARNING: At this stage Endeavour will be making quite a few orbital adjustments up until docking so heavens-above's STS-118 pass times may well not be accurate. Tonight's passes will show. (the times stated above indicate that the shuttle passes before ISS which seems back to front to me unless the shuttle covers way more ground than I thought... I might be wrong).

Either way... looking forward to tonights rare view

Vega

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Vega

Vega

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Very good, daft question what do you mean by 10 W, 79N, 25E?

It means Rising (10 deg) in the West, reaching highest point (79 deg) in North, then setting (going out of shadow at 25 deg) in the East

I twould normally say 10E at the end but this time around the shuttle goes in to the Earth's shadow before completely setting

Vega

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SteveL

SteveL

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from what i vaguely remember, doesnt the shuttle take a higher orbit than the ISS, and therefore flying at a lower angular velocity, and just waits for the ISS to catch it up (lower orbit, higher AV) before the shuttle lowers the orbit and docks? That would explain why the shuttle passes first...

or am i talking rubbish again?

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Vega

Vega

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Steve that makes perfect sense and would explain my confusion at the times stated. Either way I''ll be out at the earlier time just incase :(

We should be able to tell which one is which as the station will have an orangy tinge to it in comparison

Vega

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Vega

Vega

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Good point. I think that is due to the heavens-above just continuing with it's current orbital data. By the time it's docked the orbital data would have changed. It will stay docked for at least 11 days so after Friday, just go by the ISS timings. (I beleive Heavens-above deletes the Shuttle data once docked anyway).

Vega

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proflight2000

proflight2000

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Yeah the weather man on the local BBC news here said you will see the shuttle first then the ISS, I got confused too as I was of the impression that the shuttle would be behind and this is using two seperate sources for the information. Best look out for the little light before the big one then.

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SteveL

SteveL

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I think the swap is due to orbital changes in the shuttle as its approaching, and the the NORAD TLE stats only generate orbits on the CURRENT data. As the orbit changed over the day, its position relative to the ISS has changed.

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