Paphos Life

For you early birds in Cyprus, NASA predict a great view of the ISS (International Space Station) passing south of the Island early next Saturday, 28 October.

It will be visible for just over 6 minutes from 06:28 until 06:34 (EEST) and will be very bright midway in the South East at 06:31 and 40º above the horizon. Here's the observational and tracking bumf:


If you get a chance to see it pass by, just wonder at the fact that it's 250/260 miles up, orbits Earth once every 95 minutes and has an equatorial orbital velocity of 17,500mph !!

@Max: Do you have a tripod for your new camera? Can your new camera manage a 2 minute long exposure without you shaking it (by pressing the shutter release manually)? If so, you might in for a great photo at 06:30 to 06:32 that morning...

AL

It's a dot that moves across the sky.

Yes it is, we have seen it a few times now from Cyprus

Dominic wrote: ↑Sun Oct 22, 2017 4:17 pm It's a dot that moves across the sky.

It might appear to your naked eye as a short term 'dot' that moves across the night sky, Dominic.

But when viewed through decent binoculars (ie: 8x50, 10x70, 11x80 with your eyes 'dark-adjusted' for 20 minutes beforehand, in order that your pupils dilate to their full 7mm diameter night vision mode), OR you're taking a specialist tripod-mounted long exposure photo through a 60X zoom lens, you may get a pleasant surprise!

Here's what the ISS looked like, when Space Shuttle Endeavour was on it's last docking approach:


It's the largest orbiting spacecraft ever put up there by mankind. It's mass is around 420,000kg, it is 73m long x 109m wide x 20m high, and it has been up there for nearly 19 years now...

AL

ps: Desist from encouraging me to overpost please!

I receive emails from NASA notifying me of when the ISS is due to pass over Cyprus and recently it was just after sunset and with no cloud cover it was possible to view. Used to give it a wave when Tim Peake was on board!

My Dad used to design satellites for a living. His claim to fame was appearing on Blue Peter in 1967 to demonstrate one. The model he showed them then went to the Science Museum to be exhibited for quite a few years. I had an interesting array of circuitry and spare parts to play with as a child.

To me, having seen many of them in my time, I no longer find the sight of them in the sky fascinating. Reassuring maybe, but not fascinating. What I never cease to be amazed by though, is the wonders that such devices have enabled us to achieve. I can have a video chat with somebody in another continent, on a laptop or phone! That is incredible.

6.30 - 6.35 is already dawn light - so it won't be any good for a pic. Instead I will wait for the Sun to come up 30 min later.... in case there are nice cloud formations....

Max

Maybe on the contrary, Max... Next Saturday sees Sunrise in Paphos @ 07:07 local time, with civil twilight (or rather, dawnlight) beginning @ 06:41 my friend. So you may get lucky!

Over and out from AL in UK for today, as I have the US F1 GP to watch live at 10pm your time, plus eat beforehand...