Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Bright Lights Overhead

The International Space Station will be visible from somewhere near my favorite coffee shop over the next couple of days- twice this evening (about an hour and a half apart, the ISS's orbital period) and again tomorrow. We've actually been having some nice clear weather, so the chances seem good that if you go look, you'll be able to see it. The above is the result for Zip Code 97330. If you don't have the good fortune to live in that area, you can enter your own Zip or Canadian postal code on this page, which also has a link to a global satellite search.

I just checked our local weather... we're supposed to get increasing clouds overnight, then a chance of rain increasing through Thursday, followed by a 90% chance of rain Thursday night. So if you want to see, your best chance will be this evening.

Followup: Oops, forgot the whole reason I was posting this... according to the alert SpaceWeather sent me,
DOUBLE FLYBY ALERT: Space shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) this morning at 4:53 am EST. Their separation sets the stage for double flybys of many towns and cities on Wednesday evening, Nov. 25th, when Atlantis and the ISS will soar through the night sky side by side--a fantastic sight. Atlantis is not scheduled to land until Friday morning, Nov. 27th, so the double apparitions will continue on Thursday, Nov. 26th, Thanksgiving in the United States.
So if conditions are good where you live, you should be able to see both the ISS AND Atlantis, flying over head side-by-side!

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