Spot of Luck

[kennyb]

Hi all

I just had a real spot of luck. I just popped out into the back garden to indulge in my nasty habit ( :oops: smoking :oops: ), and to check what the cloud cover was like.

As I was peering skyward I saw a bright light in the sky heading eastward. I thought nothing of it at first as I live under the stacking areas for Heathrow and Gatwick. Then I thought hang on if that was a plane and heading away from me why are the lights so bright and not flashing. Queue the theme music to the X-files !!!

Yes I thought what was that? I ran in grabbed by bins as the scope would take too long to set up and by the time I got back out the light lasted about 10 seconds and the disappeared. I thought I would do a quick google on the ISS sightings over London and found a sight which gave the answer I was looking for.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=United_Kingdom&region=England&city=London

How's that for luck, a naked eye sighting of the ISS at 17:47 in an opportunistic break in the cloud cover. To think just the other day I was thinking that spotting things like the ISS and Hubble would be near on impossible with my scope.

As my star gazing has mainly been performed while popping out in the garden for a fag and having recently bought a scope the only thing that I have seen in any real detail is the full moon which was fascinating but leaving me wanting to see more. Due to cloudy Sky's and my inability to correctly setup the GOTO on my Celestron 6SE, this has not been too successful. But I will be patient as good things come to those who wait ! I plan to be out tomorrow, wheather permitting to see if I can catch another glimpse of the ISS as it is scheduled to fly over again. Amazing how such a small thing can make a grown man so excited .

Just thought I would share.

Regards

Kenny

[scotastro]

Good sighting. Check out www.heavens-above.com it will show you when many staellites are visible from your area.

By the way, Hubble is not visible from the UK.

Hope you get the scope sorted - have you posted the problems your having?

Mike

[ONSLOWE]

I know the feeling, I was once out in the garden pointing out some constellations to my daughter and I saw 2 steady points of light chasing each other across the sky. It was a fantastic sight as it was the ISS and Shuttle just about to dock !! One of the very best Astro views I have seen especially as it was so unexpected. There are many Astronomy disappointments when you have looked forward to a scheduled event only to be clouded out etc, it makes a change to get such an excellent view.

Regards,

Martin