[ValleyNature] Great high and bright pass of ISS and Discovery tonight March 17

[Sherman Williams]

I had a good view of the ISS and shuttle Discovery last evening,  
crossing the sky almost a half hour apart.  Seeing the shuttle take  
on the reddish glow of sunset as it moved into Earth's shadow was  
particularly interesting to watch.  In my 10X50s I could follow it  
for several seconds after it began to dim at the edge of the shadow  
just east of the Canis Minor (and Procyon, the Little Dog star) at  
about 8:42 p.m.

According to this NASA link, http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ 
shuttle/main/index.html the shuttle will dock with the station about  
6:13 p.m. ADT today, putting 10 people together in the same part of  
the sky by the time the ISS and Discovery make a nice high visible  
pass this evening.  Their star background is through all the bright  
stars in the Winter Oval (near Betelgeuse in Orion, Aldebaran in  
Taurus, Capella in Auriga and Pollux and Castor in Gemini), they  
enter the Earth shadow as they go through the bottom of the Big Dipper.

ISS (space station)
17 Mar
-2.3 mag  it may even appear brighter with the shuttle docked
20:42:14 time to start looking
10 start alt
WSW start direction

20:45:09 max altitude time
80 degrees  max altitude (near directly overhead)
NW  side or SE side of overhead depending on your location

20:46:33 end time
26 degrees  alt enters Earth shadow
NE  direction (near the bittom of Big Dipper

STS119 (shuttle) probably wont be seen separately from the station.
even though as I type this, the Heavens Above site (1) shows the  
shuttle 10 minutes behind the station. (I question this).  For  
checking the pass at your location I would use the NASA link  (2)  
below.  The tracking link (3) also gives a link for tracking  
satellites that works quite well (sighting opportunities, same as  
link (2)), also links to another version called Skywatch 2.0 by  
getting the applet,  there are a few more inputs required on your  
part but more details result.  Input for your latitude (+ for north)   
and longitude (- for west),   i.e. my lat. is approx. +45.1  long. is  
-64.25, AT time zone is -4 and check daylight time.

(1) Predictions from Heavens Above (pick a place nearest you, when  
link is achieved, look under SATELLITES   (ISS and STS 119)
http://web.mac.com/sherm39/iWeb/Site/HeavensAboveLink.html

(2) Predictions from NASA (for Canadian places)
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/skywatch.cgi? 
country=Canada

(3) A JAVA  real time tracker link for ISS and STS 119
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/


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