ISS
The International Space Station. It’s up there. Flying around or rather, I suppose, floating around. Really quickly. And it is bright.
Tonight and tomorrow night, it’s a bit more special as the shuttle has detached, but is floating in orbit with the ISS for a couple days, waiting to “come on down”, as Rod Roddy used to say.
So this is a good time to look for the ISS with the shuttle preceding it in the night sky. The passes last about ten minutes. I went out just moments ago for the 10:31 to 10:41 pass. Very exciting.
Now, in NYC we get to see blessed few stars and other celestial bodies, what with the ambient light and all. One of the things I really like about living at the top of the island in Inwood, is that it is just a wee bit darker up here, consequently we get to see a star here and there. And the website I visited (which I have since lost track of) pretty much said since the ISS is darned big and bright, even we New Yorkers would have a good chance of a viewing.
But not tonight. No, when I went out, I discovered that tonight, it is cloudy. Very cloudy. Very dense and cloudy.
Ah well, at least I now know where I can look up the flyby schedule for future, uncloudy, nights. And sooner or later, the shuttle will join the ISS in another dance across the sky. If you’re interested, head on over to Heavens-Above.com, that link will take you to the NYC configuration, but you can change it to whatever your locale may be.
Maybe tomorrow the sky will be clear. I hope so.
Ok, so I’m a geek.
Nite,
k.
