ISS, Tiangong, Satellites Over Puna

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Tonight at 7:47 PM we should be able to see a very bright Iridium flare, as bright or even brighter than the most recent we watched last week, depending on your exact location. In lower HPP it should be slightly brighter at -8.2 mag.

Following a roughly north to south path across the sky, the flare will occur just before it approaches Jupiter.

From TomK:
24th May: Very bright Iridium flare at 19:47:29. This should be easy to spot. It's going to happen almost exactly halfway between Jupiter and Arcturus (see my post above about locating both objects)*.

Sky track: https://goo.gl/QqJ0yC

* From TomK's post 5/15: If you locate Jupiter (fairly high up if you look in the south) and then look eastwards, you'll see a bright star. This is Arcturus (Hokule'a in Hawaiian). The satellite will pass just east of Arcturus before the flare which will occur to the east of Jupiter.

It's predicted magnitude is -7.6 which is roughly 130 times brighter than Jupiter, so ought to be very bright!

[mermaid53]

We had rain down here on KP so unfortunately missed seeing the ISS.

HOTPE, maybe that 3rd satellite my husband and I saw during the last iridium flare viewing was the Chinese Space Stn you mentioned seeing recently...???

Hopefully tonight we'll have clearer skies for the iridium flare.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

maybe that 3rd satellite my husband and I saw during the last iridium flare viewing was the Chinese Space Stn you mentioned

mermaid,
There was a satellite and rocket body overhead about the same time as the last Iridium flare:

USA 267 - 20:15:49 - traveling NE to SSW
Helios 1B rocket - 20:28:06- traveling N to SSW

A little later at 20:38 the Tiangong 1, the first Chinese Space Station, would have also passed over quite low in the sky to the NW.

Tomorrow night (5/25) the Tiangong 2 Space Station will again be in our Puna sky at 7:18 PM, but difficult to spot. It will be very low in the NW sky for only about two minutes, at a dim 4.5 mag. The sky won't yet be completely dark in the west either, so you'll need exceptionally good eyesight or binoculars to find it.

[mermaid53]

HOTPE, Mahalo for identifying the 3rd satellite that night as the Tiangong 1.

[rocketman]

Just saw the Iridium flare, really bright.

[mermaid53]

Did you all see the shooting star just seconds before the iridium flare? Opening act, spectacular! Main event was equally spectacular! Thanks HOTPE!

[rocketman]

Here is a website that shows future Iridium flares visible from Pahoa

http://www.heavens-above.com/

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Tonight we should be able to spot a relatively bright (0.8 mag) pass of the Hubble Space Telescope. The satellite will rise in the southwest at 7:27 PM, then head directly toward Jupiter. For some perspective on what you'll see:

* The Hubble is about the size of a school bus at 43.5 feet long
* Inside it holds an 8 foot primary mirror
* It's orbit averages 353 miles above the earth.

From TomK's earlier post:
27th May: The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) will make a pass that should be relatively easy to spot if the weather is good. It won't be as bright as the ISS passes and certainly not the Iridium flares, but should be bright enough to be easy to spot (it'll be brighter than most stars you can see). What really helps is it will pass extremely close to Jupiter, so just watch the planet between 19:31 and 19:32 that evening. It'll pass just north of Jupiter.

Sky track: https://goo.gl/ZSOFw5

[mermaid53]

That was great HOTPE. Thanks for reminding us! Here in KP, just enough clearing between the clouds around Jupiter for clear viewing.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

The weather doesn't look promising for tonight, but should we get a break in the cloud cover at 7:14 PM this evening there will be an Iridium flare near Jupiter:

From TomK's preview:
31st May: Very bright Iridium flare at 19:14:04. It will occur a few degrees above Jupiter.

Sky track: https://goo.gl/4mISz8