I don't know how many here are fans of the space program, but tonight I got to see a rare thing.

[cherokeeprogressive]

This afternoon, the Shuttle undocked from the Space Station. Both passed over my house in Big Bear Lake tonight from 7:44 to 7:49. At that time, there were only a couple of stars in view, and the Shuttle and ISS were almost the only things in the sky. Even if there WERE stars in the sky, the two would have outshone them by far as they're the brightest objects in the sky short of the moon.

We took the boat out on the lake, so as not to have any obstructions, and they came into view at the exact moment they were supposed to. The Shuttle was in front, and slightly less bright. The ISS was much brighter, but the amazing thing was that they were both following the exact same path.

We had a pitcher full of strawberry margaritas, and the only thing missing was a nice fat spliff. Been having to lay off of that stuff though during a job search... It sure would have added to the moment (or five minutes, as it were) though!

I've always been a big fan of anything space related. Here's a link that you can use to find out when and where the ISS can be seen passing over YOUR head.

Enjoy.

http://esa.heavens-above.com/esa/iss_step1.asp?nored=1

[vadawg]

1. ive always loved the night sky, my wife thinks its funny that i have different names for all the sta

stars and constellations, but im trying hard to give my kids the right ones, so they dont think im crazy..

[cherokeeprogressive]

4. My favorite is and has always been Orion. Once, before the Ms. and I got together permanently,

I told her where to find him. We used to go outside and talk on the phone while we both could see him.

The big dipper is getting pretty far overhead now in the evening sky, and the Little Dipper is now in view, signalling the coming of Orion. The other morning, I got up early to take, um, a leak, and looked out the bathroom window, and there he was in all his splendor. It was about 4 a.m. In two months, he'll be in the sky soon after the sun goes down.

I loves me some stars. As I live at 7000 feet, with little or no light interference (there isn't a streetlight within five hundred yards of my house) the night sky is amazing every single night.

Last month, during the Perseid meteor shower, we sat in the spa and watched more than sixty an hour for almost two hours...

[vadawg]

6. yup im in the mountains though only about 2000 feet up

though when i was a kid i remember looking at the sky with no light pollution, and fixing sticks as markers for directions the next day, though i know my elders knew exactly where we were they wanted us to learn to navigate ourselves. Kinda miss the simpler times... and unfortunately im working tonight though tomorrow im gonna have to take my kids out and look to the heavens with them...

[cherokeeprogressive]

10. I took a Sharpie, a piece of string, and a nail out on my back deck, and drew an eight foot circle

on the boards that make up the floor. It shows the points of the compass in five degree increments, and the direction/distance to the major cities of the world. All it took was my handheld GPS radio (a Garmin Rhino).

I'm in the process of picking out a good motor-driven telescope, and a high resolution webcam. I hope to marry the two, and be able to show the telescope's view on a good laptop screen.

When I was a kid, my dad made me read Dutton's Navigation and Piloting. I can't imagine how they managed, knowing what tools we have available today.

[vadawg]

11. lol, i swear that my uncle could navigate from paris to moscow without ever using a road

a map or compass, he was worse than a homing pigeon. i think genetically i have inherited the uncanny senses as i just need to go anywhere once and i can navigate it again, even with the changing of the seasons....

[cherokeeprogressive]

15. I've been a fool for the road since I was a kid, and since I realized that the interstate system

was made for simple people to navigate with, I don't need a map most times.

I was blessed with parents and grandparents who had a travelin' jones, and we took road-trip vacations, one lasting six weeks that started in L.A. went to OKC, N.O. Miami, Pittsburgh, Montreal, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fran, and back to L.A.

[vadawg]

17. i still get itchy feet all the time, when i retire my wife and i will go walk the roads i walked as

a child, hopefully i will be able to convince her to sleep outside, but i doubt it, as she says she may be of russian stock but shes not going to sleep out in the snow for anything.... gawd luv her cotton socks.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. All I can say is is that "It must be nice"

[sharesunited]

3. Cosmic. Mellow. Binoculars?

[cherokeeprogressive]

5. None needed.

Pot goggles would have been nice though.

[Swamp Rat]

7. Awesome!

:smoke:

[cherokeeprogressive]

12. Why isn't there a place to go see EVERY picture the Hubble Telescope has ever taken?

Isn't it a taxpayer funded program? There are so few Hubble pics available. Surely there's a respository somewhere where there are tens of thousands of pictures.

Is there something we're not supposed to see?

Absolutely awesome picture by the way!

[A HERETIC I AM]

24. I don't know if this site has all of them, but it has a shitload;

http://hubblesite.org/gallery/

[ArbustoBuster]

25. They're all put online at the Hubble archive site.

It's found at: http://archive.stsci.edu

Some images are released almost immediately after they're taken (like the ones we're seeing today), and some are "embargoed" for a year so that the astronomers who asked that the images be taken can do their research without worrying that another scientist will scoop them on their research. :)

But all the images are released to the archive a year after they're taken.

[HillbillyBob]

8. Cooool , I am a big fan of the space explorers too..

We moved to northern NC and hoped we could get to see such..but unfortunately I am skeeter food, and am allergic to the skeeter bits, and every kind of repellent known, tried them all.

I m hoping to build a screen porch and deck so we can sit out (and sleep out on nice nights too) with a second floor of open, but screened roof where we can watch the stars.

[cherokeeprogressive]

9. Rub some Cuervo all over your exposed skin.

As for me, skeeters don't like me, and I don't know why, though I never complain. My friends can get sucked dry while we're camping, and I don't need the slightest bit of protection.

Hope things work out for you!

P.S. try the tequila thing, it's worked for a couple of my friends. Honest.

[Subdivisions]

13. That must have been a sight to see! Especially the part where they

were flying across the sky in tandem.

Wow! I'm envious!

:)

[bevoette]

14. saw the same thing back in July, floating in my backyard pool in Austin...

it was the most awesome thing - we see satellites all the time, but these are so BRIGHT - i felt like if we had even had binoculars, we could have actually seen the craft - so cool!!! :)

[cherokeeprogressive]

16. I lived in Round Rock for a while, and spent some cool nights out on Lake Travis watching the stars.

Damn I miss that place. Is there still a place called the "Back Room", or the "Back Door" there? I saw Pat Travers there and he blew us all away!

[XOKCowboy]

18. Darn it we were camped at Mammoth all last week! The stars were magnificent...

That would have been a marvelous thing to see but I doubt I'd have known what I was seeing.

[ddeclue]

19. Cool link - the ISS will only get brighter over time.

It is only 85% complete. By the way the total mass of ISS is up to 360 metric tons now!

:bounce:

It is still hard to see in metro areas however.

[Maru Kitteh]

20. That is one AWESOME link. Thanks! My husband is going to love this too.

[tblue37]

21. My daughter is in her second year of residency in emergency

medicine in Orlando. She also works out at NASA and is there with the ambulances that are on hand for launches and returns. She's such a space program fangirl it makes me laugh. But she gets to be close for the launches and returns, so she doesn't mind that it really messes with her sleep schedule--especially when she has to show up for several planned launches in a row that get scrubbd on account of weather.

Then, of couse, she has her regular ER hours, which are pretty rough all by themselves. Fortunately, when you're young your body can tolerate such demands.

[SidneyCarton]

22. Cool, I used to live just down the hill from you in Crestline.

[Libertas1776]

23. "Starry, starry night....

Flaming flowers that brightly blaze, Swirling clouds in violet haze..." whenever I look up at the night sky I am always reminded of that Don McLean song about Van Gough. When afforded the ability to really get a glimpse out into the night sky, there really is nothing like it. I can recall being on the roof of the science building at the Community College I attended, pushing 9 o'clock in the evening, in the depths of winter with just a handful of my other astronomy night classmates and the professor and being given a chance to look through a high powered telescope. I got to see Saturn, a planet over 1 billion KMs away from Earth, and its beautiful rings. I will never forget that.

[johnaries]

26. Awesome! Thanks for the link!

[Roon]

27. That is so cool! We stayed on a lake in new hampshire one summer

and you could see satellites going by all the time at night. There was no light pollution.