Astroblog: Yet Another good Week for ISS passes, (12 July

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Yet Another good Week for ISS passes, (12 July - 20 July)


The ISS passes below Jupiter, as seen from Melbourne on the evening of Monday 17 July at 19:05 AEST. Simulated in Stellarium (the ISS will actually be a bright dot), click to embiggen.	The ISS passes below Saturn, as seen from Adelaide on the evening of Monday 17 July at 18:35 ACST. Simulated in Stellarium (the ISS will actually be a bright dot), click to embiggen.	The ISS passes below Saturn, as seen from Perth on the evening of Monday 17 July at 18:36 AWST. Simulated in Stellarium (the ISS will actually be a bright dot), click to embiggen.

All sky chart showing local times from Heavens Above for Monday 17 July for Melbourne.	All sky chart showing local times from Heavens Above for Monday 17 Julyy for Adelaide.	All sky chart showing local times from Heavens Above for Monday 17 July for Perth.

Starting tonight there are a series of bright evening passes of the International Space Station lasting around eight days. Some are low to the horizon, some rapidly enter earth's shadow, but for many places in Australia this series has the ISS gliding either close to Jupiter, Saturn or a series of bright stars (except Darwin, which only gets three bright evening passes). For some passes there are also bright iridium flares close by (eg July 19 from Adelaide,check the prediction sites for details).

The ISS passes extremely close to the bright stars Canopus and Arcturus during some of these passes (check your local predictions)

Most of the major cites see the ISS pass close to either Saturn of Jupiter at the following days and times:
Adelaide 17th July 18:34 ACST (Saturn) 18:32 Canopus, 19th July Jupiter (18:26) Arcturus (18:27)
Brisbane 18th July 18:16 AEST (Saturn) 18:12 Canopus, 20th July Jupiter (18:07) Arcturus (18:08)
Sydney 16th July 18:22 AEST (Saturn) 18:19 Canopus, 18th July Jupiter (18:14) Arcturus (-)
Melbourne 16th July 18:21 AEST (Saturn) 18:18 Canopus, 17th July Jupiter (19:05) Arcturus (19:06)
Perth 17th July 18:36 AWST (Saturn) 18:30 Canopus, 19th July Jupiter (18:29) Arcturus (18:36)
Hobart 17th July 17:25 AEST (Saturn) 18:23 Canopus, 18th July Jupiter (18:12) Arcturus (18:13)

When and what you will see is VERY location dependent, so you need to use either Heavens Above or CalSky to get site specific predictions for your location, a small difference in location can mean the difference between the ISS passing over a star or missing it completely.

Start looking several minutes before the pass is going to start to get yourself oriented and your eyes dark adapted. Be patient, there may be slight differences in the time of the ISS appearing due to orbit changes not picked up by the predictions. Use the most recent prediction for your site.

Labels: ISS, Jupiter, Satellite, Saturn, unaided eye