Saturday, December 23, 2017
Christmas Day ISS pass in the morning (Dec 25, 2017)
 |  |  |
| The ISS passes Through Orion, as seen from Melbourne on the morning of Monday 25 December at 4:52 AEDST. Simulated in Stellarium (the ISS will actually be a bright dot), click to embiggen. | The ISS passes above Orion, as seen from Adelaide on the morning of Monday 25 December at 4:22 ACDST. Simulated in Stellarium (the ISS will actually be a bright dot), click to embiggen. | The ISS passes passes above Orion, as seen from Perth on the morning of Monday 25 December at 3:25 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 Thursday 21 December for Melbourne. | All sky chart showing local times from Heavens Above for Thursday 21 December for Adelaide. | All sky chart showing local times from Heavens Above for Thursday 21 December for Perth. |
On Christmas morning there is a very bright ISS pass, (two for some favoured sites) where the ISS passes through or above Orion, in some locations the pass is close to the bright star Sirius in the western sky in others it is close to crux (Canopus for Darwin).
This pass is for people who are up feeding Santa's reindeer at that early hour. If the small ones are up then as well this could be a Santa Sleigh moment.
The following tables are from data provided from Heavens Above.
Passes from Adelaide
| Date | Brightness | Start | Highest point | End | Pass type | ||||||
| (mag) | Time | Alt. | Az. | Time | Alt. | Az. | Time | Alt. | Az. | ||
| 25 Dec | -0.8 | 02:43:23 | 10° | SSW | 02:45:39 | 17° | SSE | 02:47:52 | 10° | ESE | visible |
Passes from Brisbane
| 25 Dec | -1.1 | 02:17:00 | 10° | S | 02:19:35 | 20° | SE | 02:22:08 | 10° | E | visible |
| 25 Dec | -2.6 | 03:53:21 | 10° | WSW | 03:55:58 | 22° | NW | 03:58:33 | 10° | N | visible |
Passes from Darwin
| 25 Dec | -3.9 | 04:58:50 | 10° | SW | 05:02:07 | 82° | SE | 05:05:22 | 10° | NE | visible |
Passes from Melbourne
| 25 Dec | -2.5 | 03:13:14 | 10° | SW | 03:16:25 | 40° | SE | 03:19:34 | 10° | ENE | visible |
| 25 Dec | -2.4 | 04:50:17 | 10° | W | 04:52:40 | 18° | NW | 04:55:02 | 10° | N | visible |
Passes from Perth
| 25 Dec | -4.0 | 03:22:18 | 10° | SW | 03:25:37 | 71° | NW | 03:28:52 | 10° | NE | visible |
Passes from Sydney
| 25 Dec | -2.4 | 03:15:00 | 10° | SSW | 03:18:09 | 40° | SE | 03:21:17 | 10° | ENE | visible |
| 25 Dec | -2.1 | 04:52:27 | 10° | W | 04:54:20 | 14° | NW | 04:56:13 | 10° | NNW | visible |
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.
As allways, 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.
Mars, Jupiter and the bright star Spica from a line in the east was well, so it should be fine viewing for those up at that early hour.
Labels: ISS, Satellite, unaided eye
# posted by Ian Musgrave @ 11:35 pm 
Click to read about or order
Click to read about or order
Click to read about or order
Click to read about or order
