KiwiSimRacing

For those interested, tonight 23 Feb at @8.39pm, the ISS (International Space Station) will fly over head and will shine quite brightly in the sky.

Have a look at the image, print it out. Then hold it above your head with south to the south, etc. You'll see the ISS appear near your right, and up and over towards the moon. The bright dot you'll see moving in the sky has two humans living in it at the moment.

Tonights' brightness is called a -0.6 magnitude - which is quite bright.

Star magnitude is scaled so the lower the number, the brighter the object.

Sun -26.7 (about 400 000 times brighter than full Moon!)
Full Moon -12.7
Brightest Iridium flares -8
Venus (at brightest) -4.4
International Space Station -2
Sirius (brightest star) -1.44
Limit of human eye +6 to +7
Limit of 10x50 binoculars +9
Pluto +14
Limit of Hubble Space Telescope +30

If you're interested in this stuff, I suggest a visit to http://www.heavens-above.com and enter your location. It'll show you a daily list of space objects viewable , as well as other cool sciencey-type things.

kewl I'll have a gander

It's cool stuff to see. Keep an eye on the sky, a hand span above horizon to begin with, then scan the sky on the path the track is.

If it doubt, look to the moon then west a bit, but you'll only see the end bit. It's amazing just how fast it goes - a mere 5km/sec.

Sigh, if only my CTS truck could go that fast

Bah, too much cloud cover last night

But here's what you can see, with an example of just how bright the thing can look.

Astronomy is interesting isnt it >8p

Well I think so. It's also easy to get kids involved and entertained, esp when there is stuff flying overhead constantly.

Best time for watching for shooting stars is 1am-> due to the way earth has rotated around.

spent about 5 mins trying to figure out if a real bright star was actually moving...then was just about to go inside and across it ripped. Damn it was moving fast, was only over for about 2 mins or so...VERY COOL...cheers for the heads up Prom