February 27, 2011 08:42 PM UTC

Space Station/Shuttle Passes this week.

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• by: Ralphie

No, it’s not Colorado politics, so technically this diary is off-topic.  But since there will only be two more Shuttle flights after this one, opportunities to see the Shuttle and the ISS fly together are waning.

Since this site is fairly Denver-centric, I put together a table of pass times for Denver.  There are no really good passes when the two are docked.

Table and discussion after the jump.  Data are from heavens-above.com

Denver ISS Passes

How to read the table: after the date, there are three groups of numbers/letters.  Each group represents the start of the pass, the highest point of the pass, and the end of the pass.  The end of the pass might be when the ISS is too low to see, or it might be when it passes into the Earth’s shadow and simply disappears.  The first number in each group is the local time, the second is the elevation above the horizon, and the group of letters at the end is the direction to look.

How to interpret the elevation:  one fist at arm’s length is about 10 degrees.

27 Feb 18:07:04,10,NW   18:08:31,13,NNW   18:09:59,10,NNE

2 Mar 19:27:58,10,N   19:28:36,11,N    19:28:36,11,N

3 Mar 19:53:34,10,NNW   19:54:01,13,NNW   19:54:01,13,NNW

4 Mar 18:45:14,10,N   18:46:32,12,NNE   18:47:49,10,NE

5 Mar 19:10:55,10,NNW   19:13:18,22,NNE   19:13:27,22,NNE

6 Mar 18:02:36,10,NNW   18:04:02,13,NNE   18:05:28,10,NE

6 Mar 19:36:57,10,NW   19:39:05,40,NNW   19:39:05,40,NNW

7 Mar 18:28:21,10,NNW   18:30:49,24,NNE   18:33:15,10,E

7 Mar 20:03:29,10,WNW   20:04:51,22,W   20:04:51,22,W

8 Mar 18:54:29,10,NW   18:57:24,68,NE   18:59:09,22,ESE

Notes: I wouldn’t bother with tonight’s pass, or March 2, 3, or 4.  They’re all pretty low to the horizon.  If you’re outside with a clear horizon, look up, but they will probably be behind trees for the rest of us.

If you want to watch a pass, don’t be late.  The passes are short.

The Shuttle is scheduled to undock from the ISS on March 5 and land on March 7.  On March 5 there is an OK pass, and a great one (40 degrees) that’s the second pass of two on March 6.  On those nights you’ll be looking for something different.  The ISS and Shuttle will be flying in “formation” with the brighter ISS leading and the fainter Shuttle following.  They’ll creep farther apart over the two days; by the 6th the Shuttle might be trailing by as much as half the sky 22 minutes.

The best ISS pass of the week is on March 8, but that’s ISS-only.  The Shuttle will have landed by then.  But it’s a spectacular pass–68 degrees above the horizon (more than 2/3 of the way to straight up) and as bright as Venus.

If you have a good pair of binoculars, 7×50 or better, try looking at the ISS through them.  It is now built up enough, with enough modules and solar panels attached, that you might see a little structure to it even 350 km away.

For West-Slope people, I’ll post Grand Junction pass data on the Daily Blog tonight.

For other locations, go to heavens-above.com and pick your location off a map.  Don’t forget to enter your time zone.

Clear skies to all.