Watch the space station from your own backyard
Monday, May 19, 2008
It's hard to believe, but yes you can see the International Space Station from your very own backyard. In fact, if you've never seen it this is the week to take a look!
The International Space Station is a joint effort between 16 countries on four continents. It's the largest and most complex international science experiment ever conducted. The first section was put into orbit in 1998 and humans have been living on the station continuously since November 2000.
Currently the International Space Station is about the size of an average three bedroom home. It travels at 17,500 miles per hour, orbiting the Earth once every 90 minutes at an altitude of about 220 miles above the Earth's surface. When it's completed in 2010, the space station will measure 356 feet across and 290 feet long with almost an acre of solar panels to provide electrical power. When the space craft is in orbit over our darkened skies, it is these large solar arrays that reflect sunlight back toward Earth making the space station visible without use of binoculars or a telescope.
Over the next week, the orbit of the space station is such that it will pass over the southeastern United States several times a day. In the hours before sunrise and after sunset, these passes will be visible to the naked eye, weather permitting of course. It will appear as a very bright object moving across the darkened sky. The light will not flicker like an airplane nor will it twinkle like a star and it moves from one side of the sky to the opposite in under six minutes.
If you've never seen it, this is the week to check it out! Look under the Night Sky tab for all of the times and directions.
Keep Looking Up!
The International Space Station is a joint effort between 16 countries on four continents. It's the largest and most complex international science experiment ever conducted. The first section was put into orbit in 1998 and humans have been living on the station continuously since November 2000.
Currently the International Space Station is about the size of an average three bedroom home. It travels at 17,500 miles per hour, orbiting the Earth once every 90 minutes at an altitude of about 220 miles above the Earth's surface. When it's completed in 2010, the space station will measure 356 feet across and 290 feet long with almost an acre of solar panels to provide electrical power. When the space craft is in orbit over our darkened skies, it is these large solar arrays that reflect sunlight back toward Earth making the space station visible without use of binoculars or a telescope.
Over the next week, the orbit of the space station is such that it will pass over the southeastern United States several times a day. In the hours before sunrise and after sunset, these passes will be visible to the naked eye, weather permitting of course. It will appear as a very bright object moving across the darkened sky. The light will not flicker like an airplane nor will it twinkle like a star and it moves from one side of the sky to the opposite in under six minutes.
If you've never seen it, this is the week to check it out! Look under the Night Sky tab for all of the times and directions.
Keep Looking Up!
posted by Terri Bennett @ 8:30 PM
1 Comments:
I agree, it is a wonderful sight! Sort of like watching an extended "shooting star". I use a computer program to alert me when it will be visible in my area, so I try to catch it every chance I can.
On some nights, depending on the angle of sunlight reflecting from it, it outshines everything in the night sky.
Drag the kids away from the TV and take them out into the night sky, you won't regret it!
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