A farewell view of Space Shuttle Discovery

This evening in twilight (sun at -8 degrees altitude) we had a last pass of the "dynamic duo" Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133 and the International Space Station (ISS).

After it's landing tomorrow late afternoon, Discovery will be retired.

The two were well visible in a still bright blue sky, with Orion just visible. They sailed under Orion through Lepus, the Shuttle leading 37.4 seconds (about 19 degrees at culmination) in front of the ISS.

Below is one of the images I shot, using the EF 2.8/24mm lens at 4 second exposure, 200 ISO. The Shuttle is the trail on the left, ISS on the right:

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Several other European observers reported a water-dump, visible as a "comet tail" behind the Shuttle. I didn't see it from Leiden though, likely because the sky was still too bright.

The ISS and Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133

Space Shuttle Discovery STS-133 undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, and some 6 hours later made two passes visible from my locality.

The first pass was at 18:48 local time (CET) in very deep twilight, with the sun only 4 degrees under the horizon. This meant the sky was still bright blue. A crescent moon was visible (with the ISS passing only a few degrees away from it), but almost no stars.

Nevertheless both ISS and STS-133 were well visible by the naked eye around culmination: the Shuttle was about 5 to 6 degrees in front of the ISS and slightly fainter.

A second pass, this time in a dark sky, was on an extremely low elevation of 12 degrees at 19:25:30 UTC. Yet due to the very clear sky, they were well visible by the naked eye again, truely at rooftop level:

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In the image, the two trails overlap at their ends, creating one long trail. A difference in brightness shows where the ISS trail ends.

The Shuttle and ISS were 7.27 seconds apart, at a distance of 2.5 degrees, with the Shuttle leading. This corresponds to 54.5 km separation in reality.

At the deep twilight passage, I used my Canon EOS 450D, laptop and "EOS Camera Movie Record" software to record a short movie (below), showing the crescent moon and the ISS passing near it, low in the west. The Shuttle was still too faint to be seen at that time, brightening to naked eye brightness only when it was closer to culmination.

A magnificent view of the Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-130 and the ISS in tandem!

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The weather predictions for this morning suggested a possibility of clear sky - and hence a possibility to see a morning twilight pass of the duo Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-130 and the International Space Station, which decoupled a few hours earlier.

I observed from the appartment of my girlfriend this time, who lives at the 2nd floor of the same building as me. This allowed a wide vista over the rooftops towards the west and southwest. The pass happened around 6:49 am local time (5:49 UTC on the 20th), the sun was at an altitude of -10 degrees, and hence twilight coloured the sky already. I could see Saturn, Spica and a couple of other stars, low in the southwest. The pass would reach a maximum altitude of 20 degrees.

The pair was easy to see as they majestically sailed over the rooftops in the twilight sky, rising over the rooftops below Saturn and then passing Spica. They were very close, 1.7 degrees apart around 5:49:30 UTC (measured from the photograph above), passing the same point about 3.7 seconds apart. The Shuttle, at around magnitude 0 to +1 the fainter of the two, was slightly ahead of, and a tiny bit lower in declination than, the ISS, which attained about magnitude -1 to -2. A magnificent view!

Above is one of three pictures I took. They suffered a bit from vibrations, as I had only limited space to put up the tripod in the window-sill of my GF's bedroom, and the window-sill apparently did transfer some vibrations to the tripod & camera. The picture shown above shows the duo close to Spica (alpha Virgo) and is the image with the least "wobbly" trails. Movement of both objects is from right to left in the picture.

Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-129 and the STSS Demo-2

Yesterday evening it unexpectedly cleared, in front of a storm depression. This allowed me to observe Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-129, launched the day before and on its way to the ISS.

I observed it twice: first around 16:24 UTC, in deep twilight with the sun only 6 degrees under the horizon. It made a pass culminating at 40 degrees, and was easily visible, especially past culmination. Its brightness was mag. -01 or thereabout.

The second time I observed it, twilight had ended and the sky was dark and clear. The Shuttle stayed low however, entering Earth shadow at 27 degrees altitude short after rising in the west. I made this picture with the Canon EOS 450D and the EF 50/2.5:

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Next three objects were targetted with the EF 100/2.8: USA 184 and USA 179, both in Molniya orbits, and the USA 144 Decoy (99-028C).

Unfortunately, due to a human error the images came out slightly out of focus. The USA 179 and the USA 144 Decoy series were still measurable though.

At the end of the session, a telescopic observation (Meade ETX-70 at 13.5x, stopwatch and Ted's Obsreduce) was done on one of the recently launched STSS Demo objects: STSS Demo-2 (USA 209), 09-052B. It was only 1.3s early relative to Ted's latest elset.

Space Shuttle Discovery STS-128

Yesterday it was a close call whether I would see the Space Shuttle Discovery STS-128 or not. A large field of clouds passed in late twilight, and only moved away some 10 minutes before the Shuttle pass. The clouds made me miss the newly launched Japanese HTV cargo ship to the ISS.

But the clouds moved away in time, and there it was: about mag. +2 to +2.5 and fast, and...39 seconds early on predictions based on orbital elements of earlier that day.

Three minutes later, the ISS sailed by in its majestic fashion.

The image below shows the shuttle passing through Ophiuchus.

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Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-127 in deep twilight (footage)

Yesterday at 22:30 local time (20:30 UTC), in deep twilight with the sun barely 5 degrees below the horizon, I watched a very fine near-zenith pass of the Space Shuttle Endeavour mission STS-127, launched Wednesday. It was bright, being easily visible against the bright blue sky (where only Vega and Arcturus were readily visible). I estimate it must habe been between mag. -1.5 and -2.5.

I filmed part of the pass with my Canon EOS 450D photo camera tethered to my laptop, using 'EOS Camera Movie Record' software (that software basically taps the live view signal of the camera, enabling to "film" with it). Here is some footage, showing it pass near Vega (in the top of the screen). The original movie file is much better quality than this crappy YouTube version by the way (and Blogspot did not want to upload the video alas):

Magnificent view of Shuttle and ISS just before docking!

I had a pass of the Space Shuttle Discovery STS-119 and the ISS this evening about one hour before they docked. This meant they were moving as a very close pair. The pass was around 19:10 UTC at 25 degrees altitude.

It was a beautiful sight, as the pair rose in the southwest and then majestically sailed past Sirius. Here's a picture:

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The Shuttle is the object slightly fainter and lower in the sky. Movement is from right to left. Here's a second picture:

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Space Shuttle STS-126

After a very long period of poor weather, this evening was clear enough to see some stars and...Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-126. The sky quality was poor though, with a lot of haze.

The first observation was in deep twilight, at 16:25 UTC. STS-126 was 1m 45s ahead of ISS, descending to the east as the ISS rose in the west. It was bright, at least -1.5. I captured both on a series of 4 second images. Below is a composite of two of these images, taken 1m45s apart and combined in to one picture:

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The second pass was at 17:58 UTC, when it was completely dark. Both STS-126 and the ISS disappeared in the Earth shadow at 50 degree altitude. The Shuttle was very bright, at least mag. -2. Below are two images: one single shot of the Shuttle, and a second where this image is combined with a shot of the ISS taken 1m 50s later. One can see from the latter, that STS-126 was almost as bright as the ISS:

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I also captured Lacrosse 2 (91-017A), which manoeuvred a few days ago, on photograph. To my surprise, as I failed to see it naked eye, I also have Progress-M65 faintly on photograph.

Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-122, Progress-M62 flaring, and the ISS

After a sunny day, but with cirrus in the sky, the evening of February 8 was clear. This was the only evening that I had a chance to observe the Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-122 before it docks to the International Space Station. The sequence was for ISS to make a near-zenith pass in twilight around 18:55 local time, followed by Progress-M62 on a similar trajectory ten minutes later, and finally the Space Shuttle STS-122 a quarter of an hour after that, entering shadow just below the zenith.

First the ISS passed, reaching magnitude -3 in the zenith:

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Next the Progress-M62 spacecraft leaving ISS filled with garbage made a pass. It spectacularly flared to mag. -2 in Andromeda (in the image below, M31 the Andromeda galaxy is just to the right of the trail), while the camera was open. The result is this very nice image:

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In this second image, it is back to it's normal brightness of mag. +1 again:

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15 minutes later the Space Shuttle Atlantis STS-122 on its way to the ISS passed, reaching mag. -1 before going into eclips just below the zenith:

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A fine evening altogether! And although I have seen Space Shuttles pass before, this is the first time I catched one on photograph. The spectacular flare of Progress-M62 really made the evening though.

Observed Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-118 amidst flying clouds

Miracles do happen after all. This evening (9-10 August) was the only evening with an opportunity to spot the Space Shuttle Endeavour STS-118 on its way to the ISS. And I thought it was a lost case. Heavy cloud cover.

The first pass in deep twilight at 20:03 UTC was indeed lost. An unbroken cloud cover, and no hopes for the next and final pass, 21:37 UTC.

But Lo Behold....at 21:15 UTC I noted gaps in the cloud cover. I could see Vega and Arcturus. The situation was very dynamic, with parts of the sky opening and then filling up again in a matter of tens of seconds, the cloud cover moving very fast...but breaking up a little.

At 21:30 I was ready at the courtyard. At 21:34 I spotted the ISS, passing through the zenith very close to Vega. Three minutes to go for the Shuttle, and the zenith was filling up with clouds again.

21:36....I looked west, hoping to see it near Arcturus. Brief glimpse of the latter, but no luck regarding the Shuttle. Clouds occupied the west. Then moved my watch to the zenith. It was breaking open again. I could see Vega.

21:37....YES!!!!!! For maybe 20 seconds I see it, passing a bit south of Vega, fast and about magnitude 0, similar to Vega!

20 seconds and then it was gone in clouds again. Did not even attempt to photograph, it was futile.

But I saw it! :-)