What's made your day that little bit better?

Earlier I was out in the garden watching the International Space Station fly by, appearing just by the moon in the west and tracing a silent path low in the sky towards the southwest.

But what made it extra special was that tonight it had a companion - the shuttle. Over the last few days the shuttle has been docked with the ISS so seeing the station recently could have been seeing them docked together. But tonight they were a pair of bright points of light keeping each other company.

An awesome sight indeed.

Nope. I just knew where and when to look. All you see are points of light and you'd think they were either fast moving stars or planes with constant white lights. Though even at the distance they are away from us they were crossing the sky quicker than any plane would.

Checking my phone app they are currently over the mid-pacific. I would need to check when the ISS is next visible.

Could you let me know in advance when it might next be visible?

I missed it.

I was outside for half an hour and my timing was wrong!! The time of the Heavens Above website was wrong and then I was looking at my ISS app and I think I should have been there an hour earlier, or I mean, one orbit earlier.

And the sky was so clear!! (^&#%@#$&

Last night they were visible about 19:25 and lasted a good couple of minutes. Usually the ISS suddenly appears in the sky as the angles of my viewing position, the sun and the ISS all align for the station to shine. And it travels from around SW to SE. And then it fades before reaching the horizon.

But last night was different and I would have missed it if I'd been looking only in the usual direction. Yesterday they appeared just by the moon (below) - so, more from a westerly direction - and just sort of skirted the horizon at about 10-15 degrees above the horizon before disappearing behind some houses. Unless you were away from a built up area viewing may have been difficult.

But it said maximum altitude 47. That should have been rather good!

Tonight and tomorrow night maximum altitudes are 24 and 11. With the houses around me here I don't think I will see anything.

I still don't get what went wrong last night. CET is correct.

Here you go Tim. These timings are specific for Bristol:

8th March
ISS (Magnitude -2.3)

Starts at 18:12 at 10° above the horizon, direction W
Mid-point at 18:15 at 37°, SSW
Ends at 18:18 at 10°, SE

Shuttle (Magnitude 0)

Same details as ISS except at mid-point where shuttle reaches 38° rather than 37°

===

9th March
ISS (Magnitude -1.0)

Starts at 18:39 at 10° above the horizon, direction W
Mid-point at 18:41 at 18°, SW
Ends at 18:43 at 10°, SSE

Shuttle (Magnitude +1.3)

Same details on this day as ISS

Tonight is definitely the better of the two days for viewing and I would suggest is the last real chance to see the shuttle before it returns to Earth for the final time on Wednesday.

Thanks for that site Alan, fantastic tool!

I searched for my coordinates and the max altitude is only 29. I guess that's quite low?

Looks like the cloud is closing in on North Wales so the chances of seeing anything astronomical is remote.

Let us know how you get on.

I saw nothing, a bit cloudy, I'll try again tomorrow.

D, use the site Alan posted above:
www.heavens-above.com

It's a very slow site, but just drink a coffee while it loads. When on the home page, you can select your location/geocoordinates, and then click on the ISS link. It will calculate for you.

I think everyone uses that site so it is a bit slow.

It's far too cold to stand out in the snow and look at the sky here.