Update: Not So Aww Crap After All?

I was disappointed that Spaceweather.com was not listing any ISS flybys for the next week, thinking that I had missed viewing it this time around. But on a whim, I decided to check out NASA's page with sighting schedules. What do you know? According to NASA, the ISS will be visible nearly everyday for the next two weeks.

I should mention, however, that most of the flybys will be very low, with maximum elevations in the teens or twenties. On the night of May 3rd, the ISS is scheduled to reach a maximum elevation of 67 degrees, though. That's pretty good. Also, on the next night, May4th, the sighting duration is scheduled to be longer: 4 minutes. That's pretty much the maximum amount of time that the ISS flyby ever lasts, since it moves so fast.

So get your binoculars out and happy ISS viewing to all!

Aww Crap!

It looks like Wired Science let me down this week.

The blog reported on an International Space Station flyby that has been taking place this week. This is a relatively rare event in which the ISS is not eclipsed by the planet as it makes its way overhead. I remember getting a good look at one of the recent ISS flybys a few years back, and it was pretty wild. During the flyby, the ISS is the brightest object in the night sky except for the moon. And it behaves unlike any other heavenly body. It moves startlingly fast, rising above the horizon and then setting at the opposite horizon, all within a matter of a few minutes.

The problem? Wired reported on the flyby on the afternoon of the last day that the ISS would be visible. And since I didn't see the post until this morning, I totally missed it! According to Spaceweather's satellite flyby database for my zip code (65203), the ISS was visible on the evenings of Monday April 18 and Tuesday April 19, with a magnitude of 'very bright.'

Oh well. I'll just have to do a better job of keeping up to date with Spaceweather. Hopefully the next time this happens, I'll be on top of it. And maybe we can have a big ISS flyby watch party. That would be awesome.

Call Me a Derelict Once Again

Wow. It's been a long time since I've posted. Turns out that fatherhood is a fairly time-consuming venture. And when you combine it with writing a dissertation, conducting research, and job-hunting...well let's just say my days are certainly full.

I have to say that there were a couple of fairly major events that happened recently that I would've liked to blog about. First was the Perseid meteor shower, which peaked late last week. I guess we haven't totally missed that one, considering that if you live in a region with relatively low light pollution, you can probably still glimpse a few meteoroids per hour. If you're lucky. The other event that I would've liked to have posted on here was yesterday's live streaming video feed of the repairs being made to the International Space Station. The series of spacewalks that took place were undertaken to repair a faulty pump that is used to cool the station and its components. I watched a few minutes of the video feed, and what I saw of it was pretty fascinating. Most of the feed was focused on the ground crew, who we saw conversing idly, as well as eating lunch (I saw one tech eating a sandwich and found myself wondering, 'what kind of sandwich is that?'). But I did get to see some of the live video from the camera that appeared to be fixed to the astronaut's helmet. From that camera, I watched as the astronaut basically just tried to get from one point to another; either trying to reach the repair site or trying to return to the ISS exterior hatch. The really interesting part was how the astronaut made his or her way across the surface of the station using a series of handles. It was slow going, but probably very reassuring to always have at least one hand on something solid.

Anyways, I'm not sure if I'll be back to regular posting or not. We'll see how it goes. I'll try to update at least every week or two, though. In the meantime, I'll try to keep my chops up by continuing to watch Carl Sagan's Cosmos with my son, and as many episodes of Nova as I can.