Spotting satellites

There must be a small bit of little boy yet in me, I still enjoy watching the satellites go over. That is what I used to do when I was much younger. We would sit on the front porch of my grandparents house late into the evening and wait for the satellites. That must be why I enjoy watching the International Space Station (ISS) so much.

That was the case last Thursday evening when I went out to watch as the ISS passed overhead. It was the best flyby of the four times it had a visible pass for the day. The one just after 9 p.m., was to be directly overhead.

I was a little concerned as to the opportunity for viewing since there had been several thunderstorms in the area that day but the western sky was clear so hopes were high. There was still a huge cloud bank stretching from overhead to the east but the west was clear.

Promptly at 9:01 p.m., right on time, the small, bright dot of the ISS appeared in the southwestern sky moving to the northeast.

The rapidly moving dot passed Regulus and Saturn in Leo, moved on into the constellation Coma Berenices, Berenices Hair, where it entered and passed through the wonderful Coma Cluster of stars and galaxies.

By this time the ISS had reached a brilliance equal to, if not greater, than the planet Venus. Next it passed bright red Arcturus, the brightest star in the constellation Bootes, the Herdsman.

Just after passing Arcturus, the station entered the leading edge of the cloud bank but was at a level of such brilliance that it continued to be visible for more than 45 seconds through the clouds.

I would liked to have watched the pass in its entirety as, according to the planetarium software on my computer, the ISS would have passed very close to the bright star Vega in Lyra, the Harp. The pass would have been so close that the station would almost occult, or cover up, the star. Alas for clouds.

It is possible to get times and directions for ISS flyovers on-line at www.heavens-above.com or http://spaceweather.com/flybys. The Heavens Above site requires your latitude and longitude but that information is available on the site and all you need at the Space Weather location is your zip code.

Since the evening viewing was cut short by the clouds I turned my attention to Mars which was visiting the Beehive (M44) star cluster. The bright planet was on the western side of the star cluster and for the next two evenings would be moving near the cluster.

In binoculars the stars of M44 were quite visible with brilliant Mars hanging around on the outer edge of the group.

Saturn and Regulus were both visible in the same field of view in the binoculars with only a hint that Saturn had rings, a telescope would have revealed Saturn and rings in full glory.

SKY WATCH: Third quarter Moon May 27, Mars is still in the constellation Cancer, the Crab moving toward Saturn and Regulus. If you go out each evening you can mark the progress of the red planet. Jupiter is now rising just after midnight and will soon be a late evening planet.

NEXT TIME: More astronomical blathering.