Post by martinastro on Jun 10, 2007 15:21:30 GMT
Saturday June 9/10th was a very successful night. The space shuttle Atlantis with 7 crew members would make two passes over N. Ireland and I was eager to see them both. I rang John Mc Connell who had got the most up to date times from David Moore's hotline and then we waited for the first pass.
The shuttle appeared bang on time at 23.57 BST above the SW horizon and looked much brigther than I had expected. It had a strange orange-red colour tinge and raced across the sky at a very impressive speed following the same path as the ISS which appeared earlier. Despite the very bright twilight I took several images. Here is one of them...
At 00.19 the ISS passed over 2-3 mins earlier than predicted with 3 crew onboard...
At 00.29 we caught the shuttle for the 2nd time however this time it was brighter and better placed. Here it is in the SW clearing the tree tops...
As Atlantis rapidly trecked by the bowl of Virgo a beautiful mag + 2.0 (or brighter) meteor shot down from the zenith with a long orange tail burning up very close to the shuttle. I caught them both on a single image with Spica to complete the scene...
Of course the Shuttle was much higher than the meteor in reality but it didn't look that way from the ground. Atlantis finally vanished in the SE as it entered the Earth's shadow. What a glorious sight, John and I via telephone observed 1 ISS Pass (John seen 2) and 2 passes of the shuttle as well as an unexpected meteor complimented by a faint NLC display glowing in the NW. 10 humans in space passed over our heads tonight and it felt wonderful to be watching space history in real time! On Sunday night the show will be even better....
Clear skies
The shuttle appeared bang on time at 23.57 BST above the SW horizon and looked much brigther than I had expected. It had a strange orange-red colour tinge and raced across the sky at a very impressive speed following the same path as the ISS which appeared earlier. Despite the very bright twilight I took several images. Here is one of them...
At 00.19 the ISS passed over 2-3 mins earlier than predicted with 3 crew onboard...
At 00.29 we caught the shuttle for the 2nd time however this time it was brighter and better placed. Here it is in the SW clearing the tree tops...
As Atlantis rapidly trecked by the bowl of Virgo a beautiful mag + 2.0 (or brighter) meteor shot down from the zenith with a long orange tail burning up very close to the shuttle. I caught them both on a single image with Spica to complete the scene...
Of course the Shuttle was much higher than the meteor in reality but it didn't look that way from the ground. Atlantis finally vanished in the SE as it entered the Earth's shadow. What a glorious sight, John and I via telephone observed 1 ISS Pass (John seen 2) and 2 passes of the shuttle as well as an unexpected meteor complimented by a faint NLC display glowing in the NW. 10 humans in space passed over our heads tonight and it felt wonderful to be watching space history in real time! On Sunday night the show will be even better....
Clear skies
