Evening passes for the ISS (International Space Station) and the Shuttle in Chicago

A number of visible passes for Chicago this week:

http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=41.781312&lng=-87.605097&loc=Chicago&alt=0&tz=CST

Moments in spaceflight

Soichi Noguchi captures a poignant moment as the Shuttle leaves the International Space Station. Click to enlarge to a higher quality image.

November ISS sightings in Chicago

You can see the International Space Station in Chicago in the evening for the rest of the month. If schedules hold, you will also be able to see the Space Shuttle as it docks with the ISS, as the Shuttle should launch on the 16th.
Here's the next 10 days.

Early September ISS Shuttle passes in Chicago

See the International Space Shuttle and the Shuttle together in orbit here in Chicago:

http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=41.781312&lng=-87.605097&loc=Chicago&alt=0&tz=CST

ISS/Shuttle passes are over in Chicago

If you are searching for ISS and Shuttle passes over Chicago, tonight's was the last one for a while. If you are an early morning person, mid August will work; if not, early September is the next time you can see the ISS in Chicago.

Photo from the last Shuttle mission to the ISS

This has been sitting in one my browser tabs for a little while and too good not to share.


Click to enlarge. Original is 4288x2929.

Shuttle ISS pass in Chicago on Tuesday

I caught one of the ISS/Shuttle passes on Tuesday evening. All the shakiness of the Shuttle is me and not the Space Shuttle, obviously.



You still have some chances to see them pass, even if they aren't perfect passes.

ISS and Space Shuttle passes next few evenings

UPDATE 7/08/2009: Current Passes here.

We get some reasonably good passes of the International Space Station and the Shuttle here in Chicago the next few evenings. Take a look. The Shuttle will dock in three days at the ISS, so until then watch for the Shuttle trailing the ISS in the orbit. You might even see them quite close together in the sky during the pass.

UPDATE 5/13/2009: Current passes here.

Surplus Shuttles available

Billion dollar technology available for only $42 million! Alas, there are requirements, like indoor storage and no private launching.

Register: NASA will give away old Shuttles for free

Big Picture does the ISS.

The Big Picture does the ISS. I just watched the ISS and Shuttle pass by to the north last evening and fade into darkness. There are still some times to see it pass in Chicago.



via Bad Astronomy

See the International Space Station and Space Shuttle in Chicago

The next several evenings offer great possibilities to view the ISS and Shuttle docked from Chicago. See this link for viewing times.

3/18/2009 UPDATE: Take a look for current Shuttle passes.

Space Shuttle and ISS space station visibility this week in Chicago

UPDATE 7/06/2009: Here's the current set of passes.

It's June, the day is nearly as long as it gets, and at night the sunlight streams over the north pole and lights up many low earth orbit satellites even in the middle of the night above Chicago. The International Space Station and the Space Shuttle are well aligned to be visible all this week for Chicago.

See the schedule here at Heavens-Above;

Date	Mag	Starts			Max. altitude			Ends
		Time	Alt.	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.
2 Jun	0.1	21:26:21	10	NNW	21:28:30	19	NNE	21:30:39	10	ENE
2 Jun	-0.9	23:00:58	10	WNW	23:02:49	35	WNW	23:02:49	35	WNW
3 Jun	-1.1	21:48:13	10	NW	21:50:55	34	NNE	21:52:32	19	E
3 Jun	0.6	23:23:28	10	W	23:23:51	12	W	23:23:51	12	W
4 Jun	0.0	20:35:37	10	NNW	20:37:44	18	NNE	20:39:51	10	ENE
4 Jun	-2.5	22:10:13	10	NW	22:13:06	84	SW	22:13:35	58	SE
5 Jun	-1.0	20:57:26	10	NW	21:00:06	33	NNE	21:02:45	10	E
5 Jun	-0.7	22:32:38	10	WNW	22:34:39	24	WSW	22:34:39	24	WSW
6 Jun	-2.4	21:19:21	10	NW	21:22:15	89	WSW	21:24:26	16	SE
7 Jun	-0.8	21:41:41	10	WNW	21:44:11	26	SW	21:45:33	18	S
9 Jun	-0.8	20:50:39	10	WNW	20:53:12	28	SW	20:55:44	10	SSE

For the next few nights you can see the ISS and Shuttle twice in one evening; literally, on the next orbit.


UPDATE 5/13/2009: Looking for the current Shuttle passes?

See 3 satellites in the same orbit

As Emily at the Planetary Society Blog points out, there are some decent opportunities to spot three spacecraft in nearly the same orbit right now: The ISS, the Space Shuttle, and the ESA's cargo craft "The Jules Verne". Tomorrow's evening pass is best for Chicago, but it will likely be cloudy, so tonight's low pass might be your best chance to see them. At 8:32 in the SSW the Jules Verne will first be visible, passing into the Earth's shadow directly south at 25 degrees elevation at 8:34. Then the ISS and Shuttle will show up at 8:36:50PM and pass into the Earth's shadow at 8:38PM. Details at Heavens-Above.

Just morning visibility for Shuttle in Chicago

The current Space Shuttle mission is only visible in Chicago in the early morning. It will dock with the ISS on day three, so here's the Shuttle visibility for the next few days: http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=32699&lat=41.781312&lng=-87.605097&loc=Chicago&alt=0&tz=CST
After that, use the ISS orbit to see them combined (they'll be docked for about 11 days):
http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=41.781312&lng=-87.605097&loc=Chicago&alt=0&tz=CST

UPDATE 3/18/2009: Take a look here for current Shuttle passes.

ISS passes for Chicago

If the Shuttle launches as planned in a few days on the 7th, the ISS will be positioned for good viewing during the time the Shuttle is near or docked with the space station, which is three days after launch, and until it undocks 10 days into the mission.

In other satellite news, the decaying spy satellite might be visible to you in the morning before it deorbits.

Space Shuttle and ISS visibility in Chicago

The International Space Station is back being visible in the Chicago evening sky for the next 10 days, and the Space Shuttle is expected to launch in two days, so if the weather clears up here we'll have some great passes. The passes on the 4th, 5th, and 6th are all very good and the ISS will be fairly high in the sky at maximum elevation, although it's snowing heavily right now here for tonight's pass.

Space station and Shuttle passes over Chicago

Why, yes, there are visible passes for them tonight.

Link to Heavens-Above.

Just saw the Space Station and the Shuttle

I just ran out and saw the Space Station and the ISS passing to the north, a touch dimmer than Jupiter. If I were inclined, I could see them in the west on their next orbit, but it's quite low. Tomorrow's pass in Chicago is perfect--let's hope the weather cooperates.

Good passes of the space station over Chicago for the next few days

Wednesday the 15th, starting at 9:43:32PM, reaches 10 degrees above the NW horizon, maximum altitude of 33 degrees at 9:46:11 in the NNE and fades into shadow then.

Thursday the 16th, two good passes:
8:31:17PM, reaches 10 degrees elevation in the NNW,
8:33:23 maximum elevation of 18 degrees in the NNE,
lowers to 10 degree elevation at 8:35:29 in the ENE

The very next orbit (i.e., you could record the time it takes the space station to completely orbit the earth!):
10:05:53PM, reaches 10 degrees elevation in the NW,
10:07:36 maximum elevation of 32 degrees in the NW and fades into shadow then.

Friday the 17th,
8:53:27PM, reaches 10 degrees elevation in the NW,
8:56:08 maximum elevation of 32 degrees in the NNE;
fades into shadow at 8:57:41 at 19 degrees above eastern horizon.

On Saturday the 18th, a fantastic pass, right overhead!
It reaches 10 degrees elevation at 9:15:45PM in the NW, passes overhead at 9:18:38, and passes into shadow at 9:19:09PM 57 degrees above the ESE horizon.

All predictions are from Heavens-Above.

Again, what you'll see is a moving, steady point of light that may be one of the brighter objects in the evening sky, possibly brighter than Jupiter, which is shining in the south. If the object has more than one light, or blinks, you are seeing an aircraft. The color can range from pure white to orange; it's orange when the solar panels on the station are facing the right way; it also fades into an orange when the sun is setting at the space station.

I have some images from last month's Space Shuttle mission to the ISS here.

If you haven't seen the Astronomy Picture of the Day, go do it now.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070628.html

Wow. Last week Joe Cottral and I videotaped a pass of the ISS and the Shuttle from Ryerson Observatory; a quick look at the tape showed some structure to the brillant object we were trying to track; but I think I blurred from moving the telescope even the video sub-fields. On the tiny LCD monitor I think we could see the solar panels as two distinct lines separate from the main blob. I'll need to download the video.

But man, look at that image! Ron Dantowitz has been doing this for over ten years; and only gets better with time. Images like this always seem to perk the interest of the national imaging community.

Also see Mike Tyrrell's images (and videos mentioned here),
public Russian adaptive-optic images, the down-sampled Maui ones, etc.