International Space Station (ISS) Passes

Image Credit: NASA

Another favorite pastime I have was watching for passes by the International Space Station (ISS). Now it is docked with the space shuttle, so it should appear a little brighter than it usually does. The best times to look for passes are just after sunset, or just before sunrise. You can look up predicted passes by using the heavens-above website. It is also neat to see them go over just after they separate. Select your location from their vast database and you can retrieve a list of pass time. The lower the number in the "Mag" column, the better your chances for seeing a pass.

Here is a list of pass times for the next couple of days over my location south of Charleston, WV:

Date	Mag	Starts			Max. altitude			Ends
		Time	Alt.	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.
17 Mar	-0.4	06:58	10	NNW	07:01	28	NNE	07:03	10	E
18 Mar	0.7	05:47	11	N	05:48	13	NNE	05:49	10	NE
19 Mar	-0.3	06:08	14	NNW	06:10	26	NNE	06:13	10	E
20 Mar	-2.4	06:30	13	NW	06:33	85	NE	06:35	10	SE
21 Mar	0.5	05:21	20	ENE	05:21	20	ENE	05:22	10	E
21 Mar	-1.1	06:52	10	WNW	06:55	24	SW	06:57	10	S
22 Mar	-1.0	05:43	35	ESE	05:43	35	ESE	05:45	10	SE
23 Mar	-0.3	06:05	17	S	06:05	17	S	06:06	10	SSE

These pass times were all retrieved from the heavens-above website. Also note that the predicted times for the passes are VERY accurate. Get your time synchronized with the NIST time for best results. If you are lucky enough to see a pass, feel free to drop a comment here. Good Luck!

Close Encounters

Near earth asteroids have gained increasing attention in the news media in recent years. Many astronomers lament that there is not enough being done to catalog these objects, and most funding seems to be focused on making the next "big" scientific discovery.

It seems to me that knowing whether the earth is going to be obliterated in the next few days, weeks, or months is pretty important compared to knowing whether a moon on Saturn has geysers. Well, geysers on Eceladus IS pretty neat.

Every once in a while you hear about an asteroid coming close to earth. There also have been quite a few movies about the topic. There is a neat website where you can keep track of whether one of these "potentially hazardous asteroids" are on a collision course with our home planet. It can be found at spaceweather.gov. Luckily, none are foreseen to hit us in the near future. There is a list of new asteroid discoveries that are made by the various sky surveys that are ongoing. There are 2 to 3 new asteroid discoveries every couple of weeks. So who really knows if one will be discovered to be on a collision course. I think we better keep looking...

A Quest for Knowledge

As a noobie amateur astronomer, I am always on the lookout for good material to read. I have a broad interest in learning about the sky, planets, stars, galaxies, etc. I have a couple of astronomy magazines and these are great to read. I also have been paying closer attention to media. It is amazing how much astronomy and its latest breakthroughs permeates through the media. Everywhere I turn there is another news article or story about space discoveries and exploration.

It is just a matter of time when there will be a whole television network devoted to astronomy. Perhaps call it the "Space Channel." There are close relatives to this idea found in the likes of The Discovery Channel, Science Channel, etc. but they cover many other topics besides space.

I just can not get the time to sit down and read, or look much at the sky. There is my real job and family to juggle. Recently I have been grabbing whatever material that I can from the public library. It is nice to wind down at the end of day with a good book and read for a half hour or so.

You can research just about anything on the Internet, but reading from an Internet browser just does not cut it for me. There is nothing better than the feel of a good book in your hands with honest to goodness pages that you can flip through.

I book that caught my eye at the library the other day is called "Stargazer:The Life and Times of the Telescope" by Fred Watson. I have read about a quarter of the book so far and am enjoying learning about the history of the telescope. No need to go through the whole review of this book, since there is plenty available at Amazon.com, or by using a Google search. The prose of the book a quite readable and easily understood. If you happen across this tome at you library or local bookstore pick yourself up a copy.

Finally some clear skies!

The clouds and rain we have been seeing the past couple of weeks have cleared out, and last night I was able to have a view of the night sky for the first time since starting this blog.

We recently acquired a new digital camera, an Nikon Coolpix, that I am not very familiar with. Being the typical male, I did read the manual and set about playing around with the different settings, taking some snapshots of the stars with my wife's tripod. Nothing really came out.

This is a very cheap camera with "auto" settings and I did not get anything to come out. Looks like I better read the manual after all. Since I am recovering from the flu, my time outdoors was very limited.

There was no moon an the atmosphere had little moisture, so the seeing was pretty good. I also spent a few minutes looking for sporadics, but saw nothing of note.