Right on the money!

Against all sane judgment, I set the alarm for 4:30 am last night so as to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the ISS pass this morning. I got up, washed the sleep from my eyes, and then, equipping myself with a compass and a video camera, I went out to face the world.

It is gawdawful bright around here at night. I had intended to go over to the church parking lot, but it's bathed by several very strong lights, so I ended up out in front of my house, hoping that a 30 degree elevation would keep any passing space stations above the treeline. I needn't have worried. I also didn't need the compass.

I did happen to see another satellite pass while I was waiting, and then the battery of the camera died (this, after charging all night). The time for the pass came and passed by my wristwatch, and I was about ready to call it an evening when WHAM! I see this dot moving from north toward the east like a star on steroids.

It's the ISS, consisting today of a Node (a.k.a. "Unity"), the FGB ("Zarya"), and the Service Module ("Zvezda"), along with a Progress M1-3 cargo vehicle, which docked yesterday.

I follow it for a few minutes as it tears eastward and disappears out of sight.

Technology and science stand vindicated.

Cheers...

Twofer!

I stepped outside at a few minutes past nine hoping to catch another look at the International Space Station as it hurtles by overhead, and also to see if I couldn't have better luck trying the capture the moment with the video camera and learned two things:

1) The battery did not die this morning, as I first suspected; the unit apparently shuts off after a few minutes and I did not think to try to reactivate it this morning. (What? RTFM, you say? Well, the instructions never came with this unit, but that's another story.) 2) Even if you do point a home video camera at a fleeing space station, you won't see much unless you zoom in, and that won't help unless you have a stable platform to work with.

No biggie. What is important is that I did see the ISS again today. The satellite tracker programs say there won't be a visible pass of the ISS for the rest of the month, at least (based on the data I have). Then there is the small feature of having being able to see two passes - one in the morning and one in the evening - on the same day. The combination of conditions that made it possible is particularly rare.

That's so because, as I mentioned in a previous rock, passes during which you can see any particular satellite at all require you to be in the dark, and the satellite to be in sunlight and in visual range. That's rare enough (though not uncommon). But to happen twice in one day? WIth such good visibility above the horizon? I'm certainly not complaining.

At any rate, hardly anything showed on the video, and then only after I zoomed into the frame, at which point everything started jumping around like a firefly on mescaline. No details, of course, but I was curious to see what could (and could not) be videotaped of such events. Now I know.

It's getting late, as usual. And I've got to go audit a telecon tomorrow morning, bright and early. Gotta go finish some paperwork, and then it's off into the arms of Morpheus.

Cheers...