ISS over Tai Wan

[yeti monster]

Whilst the weather here, due to Typhoon Conson, is too rough for it to be worthwhile setting up the telescope, the sky is fairly clear so I borrowed the 20x50s from the Ballast Control Room.

No Mercury, due to the clouds on the horizon, Venus as usual too bright, Saturn would have been a decent target, save for the natural shake associated with large, hand held binos. The crescent moon was nice, with a decent earthshine to it.

However, the main reason for my going out was to catch ISS, which was scheduled to appear to the North and pass across to the East, reaching 23 degrees before entering shadow.

There was a helicopter on deck, so I was restricted to the walkway below.

First target proved to be another helicopter, attempting to return personnel to the FPSO. Next target, no flashing lights, yup ISS. I was able to follow it for most of the pass, having to lean out over the handrails a bit to grab as much as I could.

The ground track shows that ISS passed directly over the North Eastern tip of Tai Wan, which is, well, I recon it's over 600 miles from us, of course I'll need to check that, but it sure puts things into perspective.

I returned my gaze to the chopper attempting to land on FPSO, watching it give up and turn back to shore, another night in town for those guys then, jammy gits!

Finally the chopper on our helideck lifted and I watched it until it flew out of view.

Excellent wee observation session.