I have discovered a cool app on my phone which alerts me to when the ISS is passing over and visible (depending on weather). The ISS is the single brightest object in the night sky other than the moon (or very rare huge meteors). The one I have been using is called “ISS detector”, there are other apps which do basically the same thing. I got hooked on this kind of stuff when I was a kid, my Dad would wake me up at wee hours of the night to watch the mail plane, or the sky lab fly over. Its pretty cool. One really cool thing is you can watch it with someone over a 1000 miles away. My brother and I watched ISS fly over one night, while talking on the phone, he was in OH, I was in FL. It would be something to see how long of a string of sightings we could record!
Saw it last night here in Maine. It is truly awesome to witness.
http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z275/brighton_sti/20141226_165651_zpsfiwykwts.jpg
Great app, thanks!
My girlfriend teaches physics and engineering at a high school is Southern California. She got the school involved in a project where a group of students is sending an experiment to the space station in the next few months (1 of 25 schools in the nation). Very cool stuff! I will probably be going to VA to see the rocket launch.
When I was in the Army, 1 of my Drill Sergeants ( a former Army Ranger) taught me how to tell a satellite from a star. Of course he also had us sing a cadence about going to war with China. Tough man, but I respect him.
Want to get a student interested in science? Have the teacher get hooked up with the American Radio Relay League (www.arrl.org) in Newington CT. ARRL is the “NACHI” of radio amateurs. Ask about the summer training program for teachers that will enable them to connect with a local amateur (ham) radio operator who will work with them and their class to make contact with the ISS crew members via amateur radio. Picture speaking with the crew while you watch the ISS passing overhead. The ISS has conducted quite a few experiments designed by students from junior high school through college and has also deployed several satellites designed by students.
I remember a while back when the last shuttle was just detaching the ISS, they were both visible flying over, and the weather gods cooperated that night. Very cool to see the two bright lights sweeping overhead.
I remember seeing them docked flying over very cool.