Dark Knight
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With the Space Shuttle Atlantis scheduled to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday, skywatchers across much of the United States and southern Canada are in for a real treat on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.
Should weather conditions permit to offer clear skies, there will be a few opportunities to see both the Atlantis orbiter and the ISS flying across the sky from many locations.
The sight should easily be visible to anyone, even from brightly-lit cities.
The appearance of either the Space Shuttle or the Space Station moving across the sky is not in itself unusual. On any clear evening within a couple of hours of local sunset and with no optical aid, you can usually spot several orbiting Earth satellites creeping across the sky like moving stars. Satellites become visible only when they are in sunlight and the observer is in deep twilight or darkness. This usually means shortly after dusk or before dawn.
What makes the prospective upcoming passages so interesting is that you'll be able to see the two largest orbiting space vehicles in the sky at the same time.
Shuttle Atlantis is expected to undock from the ISS at 10:40 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday. Atlantis will fly around the ISS before finally pulling away from the Station at 12:28 EDT, although it should still remain at a relatively close distance to it until its scheduled return to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, June 21.
Much More at Link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070618/sc_space/spacestationandshuttlevisibletogetherinnightsky
Should weather conditions permit to offer clear skies, there will be a few opportunities to see both the Atlantis orbiter and the ISS flying across the sky from many locations.
The sight should easily be visible to anyone, even from brightly-lit cities.
The appearance of either the Space Shuttle or the Space Station moving across the sky is not in itself unusual. On any clear evening within a couple of hours of local sunset and with no optical aid, you can usually spot several orbiting Earth satellites creeping across the sky like moving stars. Satellites become visible only when they are in sunlight and the observer is in deep twilight or darkness. This usually means shortly after dusk or before dawn.
What makes the prospective upcoming passages so interesting is that you'll be able to see the two largest orbiting space vehicles in the sky at the same time.
Shuttle Atlantis is expected to undock from the ISS at 10:40 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday. Atlantis will fly around the ISS before finally pulling away from the Station at 12:28 EDT, although it should still remain at a relatively close distance to it until its scheduled return to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday, June 21.
Much More at Link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070618/sc_space/spacestationandshuttlevisibletogetherinnightsky