Anyone seen the International Space Station?

[Maggot]

I was sitting on the deck last night and saw a really bright star. then I realized it was too bright for a star, must be a planet, so i grabbed my binos to take a look. Took a few seconds to realize what it was, looks really strange from earth, you can almost make out the solar panels and can definitely see a lot of blinking lights. A nice surprise.

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Many times… it is impressive!

 

[kmckinnon]

Check this out. Get notified when the space station can be seen from your location.

International Space Station

See the International Space Station! As the third brightest object in the sky the space station is easy to see if you know when to look up.

spotthestation.nasa.gov

 

[candyx]

Did you shine your laser at it ?

 

[sirhrmechanic]

Turn on some NVG’s and look at a Cold winter sky.

Some wild shit going on up there!! Planes,
Satellite trains. ISS. Individual sats.

There is a phone app called satellite tracker. Aim phone at sky and it shows you where to look for the orbits. Very cool!

Sirhr

 

[eflyguy]

Dozens of times. With decent binos (mine are 10x50) you can easily make out the shape. Also seen the shuttle docking/undocking back in the day.

 

[Maggot]

Check this out. Get notified when the space station can be seen from your location.

International Space Station

See the International Space Station! As the third brightest object in the sky the space station is easy to see if you know when to look up.

spotthestation.nasa.gov

After looking at that I dont think it was the ISS, it was visible for too long, say a hour, but definitely not a plane. I wonder WTF it was? aliens, perhaps.

 

[kmckinnon]

After looking at that I dont think it was the ISS, it was visible for too long, say a hour, but definitely not a plane. I wonder WTF it was? aliens, perhaps.

You're right. ISS doesn't stick around that long instead moving across the night sky in a matter of a minute or two. You really realize then just how fast it's moving. If's the very definition of hauling ass!

 

[eflyguy]

After looking at that I dont think it was the ISS, it was visible for too long, say a hour, but definitely not a plane. I wonder WTF it was? aliens, perhaps.

Definitely not that long, 2-8 minutes for ISS depending on position relative to the sun. An orbit takes ~90min and you're limited to <10% of the sky from the ground.

 

[candyx]

Never drink the bong water its just best to discard it ......

 

[Jperk0278]

My wife has an app on her phone that notifies her when it is passing over.

 

[chevy_man]

It's only visible from between 2 and 4am here, for less than 5 minutes every time, and never high enough that I could see it over the mountains for more than a moment.

Think I'll pass.

 

[LeftyJason]

 

[BytorJr]

Ohhh, you meant from Earth, not from the inside .

 

[Cowpokey]

Turn on some NVG’s and look at a Cold winter sky.

Some wild shit going on up there!! Planes,
Satellite trains. ISS. Individual sats.

There is a phone app called satellite tracker. Aim phone at sky and it shows you where to look for the orbits. Very cool!

Sirhr

There's another one called "SkyView", it's pretty cool, daughter and I both have it. You can use it to highlight an object and it will tell you which way to look for it. Lots of weird stuff in the sky, you can click on everything and it will tell you what it is.

 

[Dead Eye Dick]

Watched it last spring, does not hang around long.

 

[Aftermath]

There's another one called "SkyView", it's pretty cool, daughter and I both have it. You can use it to highlight an object and it will tell you which way to look for it. Lots of weird stuff in the sky, you can click on everything and it will tell you what it is.

It's truly amazing how many used rocket bodies are floating around. I saw an animation somewhere that shows all the debris. It probably forms a force field type barrier against all incoming.

 

[Aussieusa]

This is one of my favourite videos of Destins

 

[eflyguy]

There's another one called "SkyView", it's pretty cool, daughter and I both have it. You can use it to highlight an object and it will tell you which way to look for it. Lots of weird stuff in the sky, you can click on everything and it will tell you what it is.

That's what I use, the 'lite' version which is free.

ISS is currently on the other side of the planet from me.

 

[Cowpokey]

That's what I use, the 'lite' version which is free.

ISS is currently on the other side of the planet from me.

I don't know what the difference is between Lite and regular, don't remember what it cost but it wasn't too much so I bought it. I don't remember if my daughter has Lite or regular, will have to ask her later.

It's wild how much space junk there is floating around.

 

[eflyguy]

You really realize then just how fast it's moving. If's the very definition of hauling ass!

People think there's no gravity in orbit. There is almost as much as on the earth's surface, it's just that low-earth orbit requires being in constant free-fall, at around 4.75 miles per second. That's what it takes to not hit the earth, and just keep going around. You can take rides on airplanes that simulate this (for a few seconds) with a parabolic flight trajectory. I've done it in a sailplane.

If it only took "going up", getting to orbit would be a lot simpler. Instead, it requires getting to orbital velocity. One of the entrances to the ISS used to have the speed in km/h over it, haven't seen that in a while.

 

[Srgt. Hulka]

I have an app on my phone that notifies me, when it's visible, 10 minutes before it comes up over the horizon.
If you're interested, it's Sky Guide.

 

[JimTN]

The ISS moves along at 17,500 mph, we've seen several times and usually visiable for 3-6 minutes in our area, depending on the height of it's orbit on that day. Fastest moving "star" I've seen. I tried looking at it with some HD binos, but was too shaky to actually see anything. Wife signed up on some website and receives texts notifying us of the flyovers.

 

[Maggot]

So if it wasnt the ISS I wonder what I was seeing. It didnt seem to be moving much if at all. Do some satellites, like Musk's comm sats, have stationary orbits? It was definitely big and had a bunch of blue and red blinking lights. And I wanst drinking bong water, LOL.

 

[acudaowner]

 

[eflyguy]

So if it wasnt the ISS I wonder what I was seeing. It didnt seem to be moving much if at all. Do some satellites, like Musk's comm sats, have stationary orbits? It was definitely big and had a bunch of blue and red blinking lights. And I wanst drinking bong water, LOL.

They orbit pretty much as fast as ISS and at a higher altitude, and are the size of a shoe box.

"Stationary" satellites are about 100x further out.

You probably saw a high-altitude aircraft of some type. Possibly a UAV. If you had a precise timestamp and location it's sometimes possible to access records, but if it was military, it's likely restricted.

There was a bombing range close to where my mom lived before she moved to be near my sister, I could track various military aircraft on their runs (this is in South Wales, UK..)

 

[Maser]

The real kicker is you weren't seeing the ISS, you were seeing Musk's Starlink satellites.

 

[Maggot]

They orbit pretty much as fast as ISS and at a higher altitude, and are the size of a shoe box.

"Stationary" satellites are about 100x further out.

You probably saw a high-altitude aircraft of some type. Possibly a UAV. If you had a precise timestamp and location it's sometimes possible to access records, but if it was military, it's likely restricted.

There was a bombing range close to where my mom lived before she moved to be near my sister, I could track various military aircraft on their runs (this is in South Wales, UK..)

Definitely not any conventional aircraft, at least no my extremely low clearance (read 0) has knowledge of. It just sat there and from comparison with other planes I see go over much higher. Wish I had noted the time and day.

 

[eflyguy]

Definitely not any conventional aircraft, at least no my extremely low clearance (read 0) has knowledge of. It just sat there and from comparison with other planes I see go over much higher. Wish I had noted the time and day.

Military UAV's can lurk at 40-45mph, and they often practice at night using thermal IR imaging (or plain GPS guidence).

In sailplanes, we often flew slower than that.

I have no idea but it wasn't a satellite, or a launch vehicle if it took that long to traverse the sky - you would have seen the smoke trail. They do launch out of VA but directly out over the ocean.

 

[sharac]

Maybe it was a Rudolf the 1st dear having a major fart episode....

Seriously dude you're too old for this shit. If you were 40 years younger you'd "see a starstreak" and wish for a prom queen to blow you one or two but now you're wondering about an ISS and worse yet posting about it....

Proposed solution: If it aint death and "horses snorting fires" pour yourself another one and have a moment without this bullshit electronics...

 

[roostercogburn98]

Saw starlink a while back. Kinda trippy watching a whole string of satellites scream overhead.

 

[Maggot]

Military UAV's can lurk at 40-45mph, and they often practice at night using thermal IR imaging (or plain GPS guidence).

In sailplanes, we often flew slower than that.

I have no idea but it wasn't a satellite, or a launch vehicle if it took that long to traverse the sky - you would have seen the smoke trail. They do launch out of VA but directly out over the ocean.

Must have been Klingons.

 

[LeftyJason]

People think there's no gravity in orbit. There is almost as much as on the earth's surface, it's just that low-earth orbit requires being in constant free-fall, at around 4.75 miles per second. That's what it takes to not hit the earth, and just keep going around. You can take rides on airplanes that simulate this (for a few seconds) with a parabolic flight trajectory. I've done it in a sailplane.

If it only took "going up", getting to orbit would be a lot simpler. Instead, it requires getting to orbital velocity. One of the entrances to the ISS used to have the speed in km/h over it, haven't seen that in a while.

This thread keeps bringing things to my mind.

For the airplane ride thought OK Go filmed this video. They filmed it with the music slow and sped up the video later. Not by much. They do all kinds of crazy music videos.


On orbital speed this is good. Worth it to hover the mouse or long hold the pictures and annotation thingys. They can be funny.

Orbital Speed