ISS, Tiangong, Satellites Over Puna

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

There's a fairly bright Iridium flare tonight at 7:48 PM. It's moving from north to south and will flare right before it reach Mars:

Iridium Map from Heavens Above

Date: 04 September 2018
Time: 19:48:36
Brightness: -5

The older Iridium Satellites will all be retired by the end of the year, and the new fleet will not have the same bright flash, so catch it while you can.


Also, there's been some drama on the ISS recently. An air leak was detected, found, and sealed, but there is some controversy whether is was accidental, or intentional. Sabotage? International Conspiracy?
Read all about it: ISS - Meteor or Sabotage?

At a White House meeting in June, President Trump reportedly told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that “I remember Pearl Harbor.”

[PaulW]

Thanks! I don't think that link will work for anyone else, but I had a look on the site and it's as HOTPE described; north to south, flaring at 7:48.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

If the Heavens Above link doesn't work, here's their home page:

https://heavens-above.com

Scroll down to Satellites, where you'll find Iridium Flares listed

At a White House meeting in June, President Trump reportedly told Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe that “I remember Pearl Harbor.”

[PaulW]

Some clouds, but still bright enough to see it.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

There have been several good passes of the ISS over Puna the last few nights. If the sky remains clear, tonight should be another.

Sun May 19
7:09 PM
Visible: 6 min
Brightness: -2.6 mag
Max height: 48°
Appears: SW
Disappears: NW

https://www.heavens-above.com/passdetails.aspx?lat=19.6025&lng=-154.9416&loc=HPP&alt=-7&tz=UCT10&satid=25544&mjd=58623.2170727007

[alaskyn66]

I saw it this morning just a bit before daylight ... bright as can be.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

saw it this morning

Early riser!
There’s another bright one tomorrow morning, Mon, May 20th, rising at 4:59 in WNW. It will pass very near the moon and Jupiter right after 5:02 AM. All three objects will cluster exceptionally close together for a moment.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Lightsail 2 deployed its solar sail a few days ago. The reflective coating on the sail will make the cubesat slightly more visible. You’ll need excellent vision, but regular passes will occur over Puna the next 10 days.

TomK, if you have a moment to spare, would you please add any additional info you might have?

https://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=44420&lat=19.6025&lng=-154.9416&loc=HPP&alt=-7&tz=UCT10

Will we fly to the stars with a lightsail?
https://gizmodo.com/lightsail-2-opens-it...1836672062

[TomK]

HOTPE - thank you. I don't have too much to add. It'll be faint but the best chance to spot it is 2nd August as it will be at its brightest, the moon will be new and it's well before sunrise. The two other occasions where it's at its brightest (30th July and 1st August) are in twilight, so suspect it won't be visible to the naked eye.

As for the light sail, there is a project (mentioned in the article) to send a stream of nano-probes to Alpha Cen using an array of ground-based lasers. The technology is probably about 20 years away, so with a travel time of ~20 years and another 4 years to send the signals back to Earth, we're looking at possibly 45-50 years before we can expect to see close-up images of the star system.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Lightsail 2 Mission Control
Showing real-time passes over Puna, and system data readouts

http://www.planetary.org/explore/project...ntrol.html