ISS visible to the naked eye above UK

[Still Waters]

Stargazers who missed seeing the International Space Station last night as it orbited over the UK have a second chance to catch a glimpse of the spacecraft tonight.

Visible to the naked eye, the station orbits the earth roughly two hundred miles above the surface, travelling around the planet at 17500 mph - or once every 90 minutes.

http://www.independe...ng-9803965.html

[ChrLzs]

For those anywhere else, or who want to check for themselves when it will pass over (which you will find is quite often!) rather than rely on a slow news day.. just go to Heaven's Above. It's at:

http://www.heavens-above.com/

Now before you do anything, decide if you will be visiting frequently - if so, choose LOGIN (under Configuration) and follow the prompts to register and tell it where you live.

If not, then just click "Change Your Observing Location" and again follow the prompts. Usually you can just type in your town/suburb and it will find it for you. Make sure your time zone is correct...

Now, you can click on any of the things you want predictions for, eg the ISS, Iridium Flares, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), or just all the brighter satellites. As an example, here's what it might look like for the ISS (I initially got no results, so I asked it to show the next week...and NOTE that these predictions are for MY location - they will be useless for anyone not in south east Queensland!):

It is fairly self explanatory, showing:

- the date it will appear

- its brightness (negative numbers are better! -5 is very bright, -1 is pretty good, 0 is ok, 3 is rather dim, 5 is almost invisible)

- the start time (military time, so 04:08:52 means just 4 oclock in the morning - forget that one! - the third one down is 7:06pm..)

- the starting 'Altitude' is degrees above horizon - 0=horizon, 45 equals half way up, 90 means exactly overhead

- the starting 'Azimuth' is the compass bearing

- the highest point time, altitude and azimuth

- the ending time, altitude and azimuth (ie when it is no longer visible becoz too low to horizon or goes into Earth's shadow)

So for say the third one down, I'll need to be out there at 7:06pm on 2 November, looking NorthNorthWest and up about 10 degrees above the horizon (that's about a fist held at arm's length).

It will then move towards the NorthEast and curve upwards to 37 degrees to be its brightest/highest at 7:09pm, then will continue to the EastSouthEast and down to about 19 degrees where it will vanish (as it hits the earth's shadow) at 7:11pm.

If you choose a sighting to try for, click that line and it will give you a helpful map.. However, it is a SKY map and needs to be held overhead, otherwise the compass points will seem horribly wrong...

As I said - that is just a guide to how to use Heavens Above for satellite chasing - don't bother trying those dates and times if you live anywhere other than Brisbane...

I'd suggest you practise on the ISS and once you have got it, try for an Iridium Flare - they are awesome, but rarer and you really should try to relocate so you get directly under the flare - the TWO maps you get for them will help you do that.. Any questions, just ask..