Transcript ISS Sighting Opportunities

Space News Update
- September 26, 2011 In the News
Story 1:
China set to ‘Leap Forward in Space’ as Tiangong 1 Rolls to Launch Pad
Story 2:
Final Grave of Fallen NASA Satellite May Stay a Mystery
Story 3:
Primitive Black Holes Could Shine Light on Dark Matter
Departments
The Night Sky
ISS Sighting Opportunities
Space Calendar
NASA-TV Highlights
Food for Thought
Space Image of the Week
China set to ‘Leap Forward in Space’ as
Tiangong 1 Rolls to Launch Pad
Final Grave of Fallen NASA Satellite May
Stay a Mystery
Primitive Black Holes Could Shine Light
on Dark Matter
The Night Sky
Monday, Sept. 26
· With even a small telescope, you can watch
Jupiter's moon Io disappear into eclipse by
Jupiter's shadow around 12:04 a.m. Tuesday
morning Eastern Daylight Time. Io will be barely
off the planet's western limb.
· Tuesday, Sept. 27
· Sometime between about 8:30 and 10 p.m.,
depending on where you live in your time zone,
bright Arcturus low in the west-northwest will sink
to exactly the same height as bright Capella has
risen to in the northeast. How accurately can you
time this event?
· New Moon (exact at 7:09 a.m. EDT).
Wednesday, Sept. 28
· In bright twilight just 15 minutes after sunset, a
telescope may show Saturn less than 2° above
much-brighter Venus extremely low in the west. A
very thin crescent Moon is setting 12° to their
left. Look for Spica twinkling between the planets
and the Moon. Good luck.
Thursday, Sept. 29
· Jupiter's Great Red Spot (actually pale orange) should cross Jupiter's central meridian around 1:09 a.m. Friday
morning Eastern Daylight Time.
Friday, Sept. 30
· Once Mars is up in the early-morning hours Saturday morning, Binoculars or a telescope will show that it's
passing through the Beehive Star Cluster, M44 in Cancer, as shown above.
ISS Sighting Opportunities
For Denver:
SATELLITE
LOCAL
DURATION
DATE/TIME
(MIN)
MAX
ELEV
(DEG)
APPROACH
DEPARTURE
(DEG-DIR)
(DEG-DIR)
ISS
Tue Sep 27/05:37 AM 3
14
12 above NW 10 above NNE
ISS
Wed Sep 28/04:41 AM < 1
12
12 above NNE 10 above NNE
ISS
Wed Sep 28/06:15 AM < 1
10
10 above N
10 above N
ISS
Thu Sep 29/05:16 AM 1
11
11 above
NNW
10 above N
Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information
NASA-TV Highlights
September 27, Tuesday
11:10 a.m. - ISS Expedition 29 In-Flight Educational Event with the Hispanic
Engineering, Science and Technology Conference at the University of TexasPan American in Edinburgh, TX - JSC (All Channels)
September 28, Wednesday
6:20 a.m. - IISS Expedition 29 In-Flight Event for JAXA for Tensai TV/NHK JSC (Public, HD and Media Channels)
September 29, Thursday
1 p.m. - NASA Science News Briefing on WISE Mission - HQ (Public, HD and
Media Channels)
Watch NASA TV on the Net by going to NASA website.
Space Calendar
· Sep 26 - Asteroid 5029 Ireland Closest Approach To Earth (1.683 AU)
· Sep 27 - TacSat 4 Minotaur 4 Launch
· Sep 27 - Asteroid 433 Eros Occults 2UCAC 46537735 (11.8 Magnitude Star)
· Sep 27 - Asteroid 2011 SE58 Near-Earth Flyby (0.002 AU)
· Sep 27 - Asteroid 42981 Jenniskens Closest Approach To Earth (1.770 AU)
· Sep 27 - Asteroid 8353 Megryan Closest Approach To Earth (2.055 AU)
· Sep 28 - Cassini, Distant Flyby of Titan
· Sep 28 - Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #292 (OTM-292)
· Sep 28 - Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdusakova Perihelion (0.530 AU)
· Sep 28 - Asteroid 433 Eros Occults 2UCAC 46673728 (13.0 Magnitude Star) & 2UCAC
46673816 (12.2 Magnitude Star)
· Sep 28 - Asteroid 2009 SH2 Near-Earth Flyby (0.077 AU)
· Sep 28 - 40th Anniversary (1971), Luna 19 Launch (USSR Moon Orbiter)
· Sep 28 - 60th Anniversary (1951), Seth Nicholson's Discovery of Jupiter Moon Ananke
· Sep 29 - Tian Gong 1 CZ-2F/T1 Launch (1st Chinese Space Station)
· Sep 29 - QuezSat 1 Proton M-Briz M Launch
· Sep 29 - Comet 48P/Johnson Perihelion (2.301 AU)
· Sep 29 - Asteroid 2011 SO5 Near-Earth Flyby (0.014 AU)
· Sep 29 - Asteroid 2011 ST12 Near-Earth Flyby (0.027 AU)
· Sep 29 - Asteroid 2011 SQ5 Near-Earth Flyby (0.038 AU)
· Sep 29 - Asteroid 3356 Resnik Closest Approach To Earth (1.234 AU)
· Sep 30 - Cassini, Distant Flyby of Titan
· Sep 30 - Comet 36P/Whipple Closest Approach To Earth (2.119 AU)
· Sep 30 - Comet C/2008 S3 (Boattini) Closest Approach To Earth (7.075 AU)
· Sep 30 - Asteroid 2011 SN25 Near-Earth Flyby (0.034 AU)
· Sep 30 - Asteroid 6433 Enya Closest Approach To Earth (0.983 AU)
· Sep 30 - Asteroid 991 McDonalda Closest Approach To Earth (1.820 AU)
JPL Space Calendar
Food for Thought
Naughty 'Faster Than Light' Neutrinos a Reality?
Space Image of the Week
Sunset with the Massive Sun Spot 1302 (Upper left on the Sun) Credit: Adrian Scott