+- Punaweb Forum (https://punaweb.org/forum)
+-- Forum: Punaweb Forums (https://punaweb.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=3)
+--- Forum: Punatalk (https://punaweb.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=10)
+--- Thread: ISS, Tiangong, Satellites Over Puna (/showthread.php?tid=16926)
RE: Elon Musk's Starlink, ISS, - Over Puna - HereOnThePrimalEdge - 03-13-2017
be careful what you write, let's not jinx this!
I'm gonna keep a low profile on this one for the next week...
You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.
RE: Elon Musk's Starlink, ISS, - Over Puna - PaulW - 03-17-2017
sorry, I was wrong! No sighting tonight, that was Feb 17
RE: Elon Musk's Starlink, ISS, - Over Puna - TomK - 03-17-2017
No changes to the extremely bright Iridium flare predicted to occur Saturday evening (March 18th) for Lower Puna. The path of the flare heads north to south. It will be slightly west of Kaloli Point, pass through central HPP, then west of Pahoa and ultimately almost directly over Kalapana. The flare is predicted to start at 19:47:23 and in Kalapana five seconds later, so you can see how fast the center of the flare travels. The flare itself should be visible for just a few seconds but will be incredibly bright.
For those who want to be looking in the right place beforehand, the flare will occur when the satellite is in the SSE (azimuth 147 degrees) and at an elevation of 46 degrees, so halfway between the horizon and zenith. If you can locate Orion's belt, that points to Sirius, the brightest star in the night-time sky. Continue in the same direction for about the same distance, but then head a little higher in the sky, the flare will be seen there.
Sky track of the satellite and flare:
https://goo.gl/cbqf08
Ground track of the flare center (not the ground track of the satellite):
https://goo.gl/OrcIMK
Note: the farther you are from the center of the flare, the fainter it will be, e.g., it won't be very spectacular in Mountain View or farther west than that.
RE: Elon Musk's Starlink, ISS, - Over Puna - PaulW - 03-18-2017
Thanks Tom, I'll be looking for it - if the clouds go away. How does that magnitude (brightness) of 8.1 compare to Sirius? I see different numbers in Wikipedia for Sirius' magnitude.
RE: Elon Musk's Starlink, ISS, - Over Puna - TomK - 03-18-2017
Sirius has a visual magnitude of -1.46. The predicted magnitude of the flare near the flare center is -8.1. The magnitude scale is a log scale, which means that the flare will be approximately 450 times brighter than Sirius!
Unfortunately, the sky isn't looking promising at the moment at my location.
RE: Elon Musk's Starlink, ISS, - Over Puna - TomK - 03-18-2017
Nothing here, the clouds were just too thick. Hopefully, others had more luck. You can come back, HOTPE, all is forgiven!
RE: Elon Musk's Starlink, ISS, - Over Puna - PaulW - 03-18-2017
not a sausage
Clear all week, then this!
RE: Elon Musk's Starlink, ISS, - Over Puna - TomK - 03-18-2017
Well, we have other opportunities. There are a couple of upcoming evening Iridium flares, one on April 1st, the other on April 7th. Both will be as bright as this one (in fact, slightly brighter). I'll provide details nearer the time. They're just far enough in the future that their orbits might be adjusted before those dates, so don't want to provide details right now.
There's also a very bright ISS evening pass on March 25th, again, details closer to the date.
RE: Elon Musk's Starlink, ISS, - Over Puna - TomK - 03-19-2017
And of course, there's a beautifully clear sky tonight. Welcome to the world of the ground-based astronomer...
RE: Elon Musk's Starlink, ISS, - Over Puna - HereOnThePrimalEdge - 03-22-2017
If you're up early tomorrow morning, and the skies are clear (will hopes & dreams never cease?) we may have another opportunity to view the International Space Station:
Time: Thu Mar 23
5:55 AM
Visible: 6 min
Max Height: 62°
Appears: 10° above NNW
Disappears: 10° above SE
You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.