ISS, Tiangong, Satellites Over Puna

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Heavens-Above website for monitoring the Tiangong-1 seems to be overloaded with web traffic, here's another one that's up and running at the moment:

http://www.satview.org/?sat_id=37820U

If you want to combine the dual pleasures of insanity and social acceptance, religion is your only choice. - Last Aphorisms

[Obie]

Burned up over the south pacific at 3:15.

[TomK]

Yes, it seems to have re-entered directly south of Hawaii and a few thousand miles away. There was probably a large debris trail but most if not all fell into the ocean. A few hours earlier, after a long time in space, we may have had the debris fall over the island, or at least nearby!

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

If anyone can take their eyes of the orange glow in the sky for six minutes this evening, there is a pass of the ISS at 7:23 PM:

Mon May 21
7:23 PM
Visible: 6 min
Max Height: 70°
Appears: 11° above SW
Disappears: 11° above NNE

Portion of Hawaii’s drinking water that comes from underground wells : 9/10
Gallons of raw sewage that leak into the ground from Hawaii cesspools each day : 53,000,000 - Harper's Index

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

It's been awhile so although this pass of the ISS is only 2 minutes in duration I thought I'd post it:

Time: Mon Jun 11 8:35 PM, Visible: 2 min, Max Height: 56°, Appears: 19° above NNW, Disappears: 56° above N
https://heavens-above.com/passdetails.aspx?lat=19.6012&lng=-154.9466&loc=Keaau%2c+HI+96749%2c+USA&alt=13&tz=UCT10&satid=25544&mjd=58281.275977426&type=V

Also, for the next week or so, if you have dark skies and good eyesight you may be able to spot 4 Vesta, one of the larger asteroids/minor planets, when it will be at it's brightest in years. I'll add more info here when I have time, or perhaps TomK will, as I'm certain he knows far more about it than I do:

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing...pposition/

I alternate between thinking of the planet as home — dear and familiar stone hearth and garden — and as a hard land of exile in which we are all sojourners. Today I favor the latter view. The word “sojourner”... invokes a nomadic people’s sense of vagrancy, a praying people’s knowledge of estrangement, a thinking people’s intuition of sharp loss: “For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.” - Annie Dillard

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

There's another pass of the ISS tonight. I try and get outside at some point every night to watch the orange glow in the sky from lower Puna. As devastating and destructive as the lava flow has been, it's effect on our nighttime sky has been almost the opposite.

ISS Pass Over Puna
Time: Thu Jun 14
7:36 PM
Visible: 4 min
Max Height: 82°
Appears: 41° above NW
Disappears: 11° above SE

Map
https://heavens-above.com/passdetails.aspx?lat=19.6012&lng=-154.9466&loc=Keaau%2c+HI+96749%2c+USA&alt=13&tz=UCT10&satid=25544&mjd=58284.2343641236&type=V


At 8:00 PM Asteroid 4 Vesta rises in the east near Saturn. It will be best visible in the early morning as it moves across the sky toward the west. The orange-red glow from the lava flow will probably make it difficult to see earlier in the night, but after 2:00 AM or 3:00 AM it will enter a darker part of the sky. 4 Vesta is magnitude 5.4 tonight, so while possible to see with the naked eye, binoculars would be helpful:
https://heavens-above.com/MinorPlanet.aspx?desig=4&lat=19.6012&lng=-154.9466&loc=Keaau%2c+HI+96749%2c+USA&alt=13&tz=UCT10

I alternate between thinking of the planet as home — dear and familiar stone hearth and garden — and as a hard land of exile in which we are all sojourners. Today I favor the latter view. The word “sojourner”... invokes a nomadic people’s sense of vagrancy, a praying people’s knowledge of estrangement, a thinking people’s intuition of sharp loss: “For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.” - Annie Dillard

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Phenomenal view of the ISS tonight, There was some cloud cover but the station was bright and easily visible. When it reached the end of it's pass over Puna the station faded into the orange glow above the lava flow in the southeastern sky, and I wondered whether any of the crew had looked down at that moment.

I'll check in a day or two if there is a mention on their social media feeds, but for now here's a recent daytime photo taken by a member of the ISS crew, of Kapoho Bay and the steam clouds roiling inland:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj-CMgJFVDG/?hl=en&taken-by=iss

I alternate between thinking of the planet as home — dear and familiar stone hearth and garden — and as a hard land of exile in which we are all sojourners. Today I favor the latter view. The word “sojourner”... invokes a nomadic people’s sense of vagrancy, a praying people’s knowledge of estrangement, a thinking people’s intuition of sharp loss: “For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.” - Annie Dillard

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Excellent collection of photos of the Big Island from space, mostly after the recent eruption and lava flow began. Images were taken by both American and Russian astronauts/cosmonauts on the International Space Station, as well as some unmanned satellites. If you click through the entire collection you'll see how plume and ash heights are calculated with satellite data.

https://www.space.com/40637-hawaii-kilau...hotos.html

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Photo taken yesterday, June 20th, by astronaut Ricky Arnold on the International Space Station of the lava flow:

https://twitter.com/astro_ricky/status/1...0813873152

I alternate between thinking of the planet as home — dear and familiar stone hearth and garden — and as a hard land of exile in which we are all sojourners. Today I favor the latter view. The word “sojourner”... invokes a nomadic people’s sense of vagrancy, a praying people’s knowledge of estrangement, a thinking people’s intuition of sharp loss: “For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.” - Annie Dillard

[mermaid53]

Wow! Thanks so much for sharing HOTPE! Very cool!