Spot the Space Station

[treacheroustexan]

I still remember the Apollo 11 landing, us kids glued to the TV as we watched the fuzzy outlines of Armstrong exiting the LEM. I was 10 years old and the event left a lasting impression on me. It was that cool.

When going through my mom's stuff after she passed away last year, I found a box of my old stuff in her garage, including the local newspaper I had saved from '69. I built a frame for the front page and it's now hanging in my home office.

View attachment 555987

This is amazing!

I'm just now seeing this thread. My girlfriend works for NASA, so hoping to get to join her for a launch sometime.

 

[passedpawn]

If you're looking for a good hi-res Heavy Falcon (or other SpaceX) image for your desktop or phone, here you go:

SpaceX | Flickr

 

[passedpawn]

Here's a live (?) feed of starman's view from the Teslas driver's seat. Watch for a minute and a familiar planet fills his windshield. The materials that make up the car and starman and all will probably disintegrate in space over the next year due to unmitigated uv rays and space dust and stuff, but for now it's a pretty remarkable image.

 

[MaxStout]

Found this on Fark yesterday.

 

[passedpawn]

52 years ago in 1966, today, the very first landing on another planet was made. For whatever reason, the Russians focused on Venus, and the Venera 3 crashed (it's presumed) into the 2nd planet from the sun.

The US has focused its missions outward from the sun, and even today Mars is the target. (Russia also landed first on mars, in '71, five years ahead of the US).

 

[MaxStout]

52 years ago in 1966, today, the very first landing on another planet was made. For whatever reason, the Russians focused on Venus, and the Venera 3 crashed (it's presumed) into the 2nd planet from the sun.

The US has focused its missions outward from the sun, and even today Mars is the target. (Russia also landed first on mars, in '71, five years ahead of the US).

Interesting that the Soviets launched so many probes there. Probably just the usual Soviet oneupsmanship. Venera 13/14 sent back a few fairly hi-res photos, before they lost contact with the probes. Not a very hospitable place. Some cool info and pics from the Venera missions.

 

[applescrap]

Woah, those pics are interesting.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Not the ISS, but it's a space station & you might be able to spot it...

https://www.livescience.com/62077-tiangong-re-entry-date.html

 

[MaxStout]

The Humanity Star, the so-called "disco ball," will reenter earth's atmosphere some time tomorrow. Maybe there's still time for some of you to see it.

 

[MaxStout]

Tiangong-1 reentered over the Pacific Ocean this morning.

No word if Sandra Bollock was on board.

 

[passedpawn]

Tiangong-1 reentered over the Pacific Ocean this morning.

No word if Sandra Bollock was on board.

Hey that's funny. IIRC, didn't she and the dude in that movie occupy the chinese SS when theirs was disabled or something? I saw the movie twice last year but can't remember exactly.

Without giving away the ending (to Gravity), she and her buddy didn't stay on it.

 

[MaxStout]

Hey that's funny. IIRC, didn't she and the dude in that movie occupy the chinese SS when theirs was disabled or something? I saw the movie twice last year but can't remember exactly.

Without giving away the ending (to Gravity), she and her buddy didn't stay on it.

I think that was the Russian ship, where Clooney's character shows up and has a sip of the vodka stashed on board, before disappearing in her dreams. Tiangong was the one with the decaying orbit that Bullock's character uses to get back to earth.

I loved how she was able to travel from each of those different spacecraft, all in different orbits and altitudes. But a fun movie, nevertheless.

 

[passedpawn]

I think that was the Russian ship, where Clooney's character shows up and has a sip of the vodka stashed on board, before disappearing in her dreams. Tiangong was the one with the decaying orbit that Bullock's character uses to get back to earth.

I loved how she was able to travel from each of those different spacecraft, all in different orbits and altitudes. But a fun movie, nevertheless.

Ah, that's right! I was thinking she abandoned SS #2 on some sort of escape pod thing (hollywood always provides an escape pod).

 

[passedpawn]

Asteroid Vesta visible in late night sky. Now's the time. Might be able to see with naked eye, and definitely with optics.

https://astrobob.areavoices.com/2018/06/08/vesta-brightest-asteroid-shines-extra-bright-this-month/

 

[applescrap]

Haha, went outside last night stumbling around after a few beers looking for it. We have a lot of trees that direction but i think i saw it. Neighbors dogs were barking. Anyways thanks for the info.

 

[passedpawn]

Haha, went outside last night stumbling around after a few beers looking for it. We have a lot of trees that direction but i think i saw it. Neighbors dogs were barking. Anyways thanks for the info.

I didn't get out. I'm a morning person, not so much the late night stuff. But I'm getting out tonight.

It's been discussed before, but there's some great apps for looking for stars. I use SkyGuide which I think is super-awesome. It uses your camera to let you see map of stars and Vesta and such on top of the real sky. This really lets you find these things. Check it out, it's free.

 

[applescrap]

Super cool passedpawn, thanks. I'm going to have to try that app.

 

[TheDudeLebowski]

If you really want to impress the kids there's apps that have a countdown to visible satellites. There's always something flying above and most have a few seconds of visible to non visible. Tell the kids in 3 seconds that something will appear there...and almost like a very small plane it appears and then disappears

 

[passedpawn]

Haha, astronaut on space shuttle, while docked to russian space station Mir, calls in to Car Talk (NPR).

 

[day_trippr]

Hilarious. "The odometer on this thing reads 60 million miles"

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, CNN is running a special on the Apollo 11 mission right now (9 pm eastern time)...

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

I wonder what Armstrong and Aldin's heart rates were running at on Eagle's blast off from the moon.
The "Is this gonna light?" question alone would have me on the verge of a hyperventilated red-out

Cheers!

 

[LAHammer]

^^ Agreed!!
I have a hard enough time every time I turn the key to start my boat to head back home. Can’t imagine what it would feel like to do that on the friggin moon!!

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, Spacex is (hopefully) about to light off a Heavy into the night sky. Should be quite a show...

Cheers!

[edit] Ugh. They just announced a delay to 2:30 AM eastern time. I'll watch the replay, thanks

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Somebody spotted more than the ISS, they were able to locate & photograph the X-37B.
https://www.livescience.com/65884-x-37b-space-plane-skywatcher-photo.html
Regards, GF.

 

[MaxStout]

NPR article on the future of ISS, with NASA needing to direct resources to another moon shot. I think there's the potential for 10 years of use before the ISS has to be de-orbited (no more fuel to bump the orbit). Hoping they don't abandon it before then; it's been a huge asset to space programs the last 20 years.

 

[day_trippr]

This would be a great night to break out the telescope...
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a28324810/how-to-see-saturn-rings/

Cheers!

 

[ThirstyPawsHB]

Too bad the damn moon is waxing and straight up! Next week have vacation so getting her out if I can stay sobber throughout the day. [emoji39]

 

[gratus fermentatio]

FYI: The Delta Aquariid meteor shower will peak early morning on July 29th. Look South, the radiant is in Aquarius; best hourly rate=20.

 

[day_trippr]

"The Apollo Guidance Computer was a marvel: As Poppy Northcutt, who calculated Apollo’s return-to-Earth trajectories, told me, the AGC had less computing power than the greeting cards today that record a personal message. Yet it worked."

https://slate.com/technology/2019/10/consequential-computer-code-software-history.html

Imagine trusting your ass to a greeting card chip
Actually, that'd be an advantage verses the SSI and discrete components used to build the AGC. A comparative bazillion points of failure...

Cheers!