Space: Image of the Day #16

[Robert Bruce]

Image of the Day



An evening view of the Nile Delta from the ISS
                                 
Courtesy NASA

[Michael Alexander]

Love it..... is there a live feed letting us know where the ISS is currently moving.....

[Robert Bruce]

As it happens you may be in luck tonight or from tomorrow:

Rhese co-ordinaries are for Walvis Bay but being so high you might see it.

ISS
Mon Jan 30/09:48 PM   
< 1
22
22 above WSW   22 above WSW
ISS
Tue Jan 31/08:51 PM   
3
55
15 above SSW   35 above ENE
ISS
Wed Feb 01/09:31 PM   
2
15
11 above W   15 above NW
ISS
Thu Feb 02/08:36 PM   
4
46
33 above WSW   11 above NNE
ISS
Sat Feb 04/08:20 PM   
2
17
16 above WNW   11 above NNW
ISS
Sun Feb 12/06:12 AM   
2
14
11 above NNE   14 above ENE
ISS
Tue Feb 14/05:53 AM   
4
36
10 above NNW   31 above E
ISS
Wed Feb 15/04:59 AM   
2
13
13 above NE   10 above E

[Michael Alexander]

I was out in my portapool floating on my back in the darkness at around 11h00 on Monday Night.... noticed a bright light moving at a rapid rate from west to east...... this was towards the south.... it was bright whilst still over the dark Atlantic.... but as it crossed over into the African subcontinent ... it faded........ took about two to three minutes.... wondered if it might have been the ISS

[Robert Bruce]

Mike

I think it was. Geberally the flight paths look like the one below. See how section 5 swoops north up the SW coastline.

I have been observing the sky at night here for many years and have seen a shuttle catching up with ISS which is very bright in the sky. It is huge and a lot of reflected sunlight gets reditected to us here on the ground.

So yessir I reckon you did see ISS. Keep a lookout tonight and tomorrow



The image above is Yuri Gagarin's flightpath from the 60's. See how at point 5 he did get close to the Namibian coastline. And this flightpath seems to be atypical of a lot of missions' flight path. The craft do not do straight lines around Earth!