Look up Americans: See NASA's ISS and Atlantis Wednesday night

by William Atkins

Thursday, 21 June 2007

Skywatchers in the contiguous United States and southern Canada will see a treat—weather permitting—when NASA’s International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Atlantis streak across the sky on Wednesday evening (6-20-07).

Space Shuttle Atlantis and its STS-117 crew undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 10:40 a.m. EDT (14:40 GMT) Tuesday, June 19, 2007. It flew around the ISS and then made its final departure maneuver from the Station at 12:28 p.m. EDT.

However, the two bodies will remain relatively close together throughout Wednesday evening and up to the Shuttle’s return to the Earth on Thursday, June 21st. It is scheduled to land at the Kennedy Space Center at 1:54 p.m. EDT (17:54 GMT).

To find when the pair of orbiting objects will be racing across your local sky, go to NASA SkyWatch (http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/), NASA’s J-PASS (http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/JPass/), or Heaven’s Above (http://www.heavens-above.com/).

The shuttle and station will appear as bright stars in the sky. The station will be a little bit brighter than the shuttle. The station is brighter because its solar panels reflect a lot of sunlight. The Shuttle Atlantis will appear in front of the ISS as the pair pass across the sky on its northwest to southeast trajectory.

Look for the Big Dipper in the northwest sky to get an approximate location where the pair will begin their travels across your local sky.

Traveling at about 18,000 miles per hour, they will be seen for only a few minutes in the night sky.

Author's note: From my vantage point in Peoria, Illinois (about three hours south of Chicago), I will see them in the sky from 9:49:36 p.m. to 9:59: 32 p.m. CDT.

UPDATE: Right on time, the shuttle and space station appeared out of the northwest sky and quickly moved across the clear night sky. They passed under the Big Dipper and onward to the southeast horizon. Binoculars really didn't help much, but a fair sized telescope would most likely have shown more details--if it was able to keep up with its movement across the sky. Hope you, too, had a similarly positive experience with your skywatching for the night. --Atkins.

A much larger Shuttle will appear tomorrow as it lands in Florida at the end of his assembly mission to the International Space Station.

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