Heads UP: Rare visable double spaceship flybys, Atlantis/Space Station on Monday evening

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[Names Ash Housewares]

Space Weather News for Feb. 17, 2008 http://spaceweather.com

DOUBLE FLYBY: If all goes according to plan, space shuttle Atlantis will undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday morning, Feb. 18th, at approximately 4:30 am EST. This is good news for sky watchers across North America who will be able to witness a rare double flyby on Monday evening. Atlantis and the ISS will appear as a tight pair of lights, as bright as Jupiter or Venus, gliding in tandem across the twilight sky--an unforgettable sight. Favored cities include Los Angeles, New Orleans, Dallas, Jackson (MS), Pensacola, Philadelphia, Reno, San Diego and others. Double flybys continue on Tuesday, Feb 19th, albeit not as tight because the shuttle will be moving away from the ISS as it prepares to land on Wednesday, Feb. 20th.

You can receive telephone and email alerts when the spacecraft are about to fly over your backyard by subscribing to Spaceweather PHONE (http://spaceweatherphone.com) or look for flyby timetables at Heavens Above (http://heavens-above.com). And should you miss the event, visit http://spaceweather.com for images and movies.

[Bender2]

Re: During the Summer of 72 give or take a year or so, I was lying on a blanket with a girl looking at the stars. (Yes that is all we were doing).

I happened to see a satellite about as bright as a normal star, going across the heavens. I too noticed it seemed to be zig zagging. After watching it for maybe a minute, I realized it acutally wasn't doing the zig zag, it was an optical illusion.

Well, my friend in 2005 was male and we are both very heterosexual and I find it hard to believe "that is all we were doing" in the late 60s to early 70s days of Free Love.

So all I can say is you appear to possibly have been a victim of a semif**king hallucination while wanting to do a full blown "luv zig zag" with your female blanket mate!

Of course, I could be mistaken... as I've been drinking and wenching all weekend!

[sweetiepiezer]

ping

[neverdem]

thanks, bfl

[kalee]

ping

[Kirkwood]

It is a well-known optical illusion that occurs with satellites that change their reflectance because they are tumbling. As they flicker in brightness, they appear to be moving in a zig-zag or jerky motion.

[Bender2]

Re: It is a well-known optical illusion that occurs with satellites that change their reflectance because they are tumbling. As they flicker in brightness, they appear to be moving in a zig-zag or jerky motion.

That may be it, but the point of light I saw was not flickering at all. It was a strong, steady point of light doing a jitterbug while moving in a rough northeast to southwest orbit.

[Inyo-Mono]

BTW if I recall correctly, Lone Pine is one place other than the Four Corners area John Ford did a lot of shooting for his western films? If so, it is some wonderful countryside to admire.

Yes it was. And John Wayne made a number of films there. See my profile.

[hole_n_one]

I thought Bennett owned this song until I heard Darin's version.......

Another version by Darin (LP)..........

Once Upon a Time

[Kirkwood]

The illusion can also be seen even if the light is not flickering, but flickering tends to intensify it. It is a very intense illusion when the visual field is mostly empty as in the case of the night sky. The illsuion is based on the microsaccadic motion of your eyes as they try to intensely fixate a small target. The microsaccades are due to normal physiological motor activity of the extraocular muscles.

[NoLibZone]

Where in the sky will it be?

I am in Rancho Mirage-Palm Springs

[Bender2]

Re: The illsuion is based on the microsaccadic motion of your eyes as they try to intensely fixate a small target. The microsaccades are due to normal physiological motor activity of the extraocular muscles.

Sounds like you are saying I have oculosis!

That is where the optic nerve... gets tangled with the lower colon and gives one a crappy outlook on life!

Might be, Jame T for Timber, but I must go to beddy by as I have to go in for some minor surgery (Minor my A$$ only when it is some else going under the knife!) in the morning.

Ciao!

[no-s]

Summer in central texas? probably a firefly....

I remember camping out under the starry night in central Texas before the skyglow and haze ruined it. Right before dawn it still seemed like there were a million stars and then one of them started to move - it was a satellite. I still get goosebumps remembering it. That must have been '68 or so.

[Hunton Peck]

I saw something a bit similar to what you describe, while I was watching the leonid meteor shower around Thanksgiving of 2001, in northwestern Wisconsin. What I saw was a single point of red light moving slowly, yet erratically along a roughly north-south line. Because it was a single point, I couldn't be sure of distance, speed, or direction of travel. The difference is that my light would reverse course after, oh, ten minutes or so, and travel in the opposite direction. It kept doing this the whole time I was there.

One interesting fact is that, about 100 miles away from where I was, in the direction of this object, is the Navy's ELF radio transmitter near Clam Lake, WI (cue spooky theramin music).

I, too, still sometimes speculate about what that thing was.

[JennysCool]

Some friends and I saw a similar thing while camping on Mt. Rainier back in the ‘80s. One of us noticed a light moving far up in the night sky, and we all watched it go over, presuming it to be a satellite.

When it was directly above us, however, it made an impossibly sharp right angle turn, then accellerated into the distance.

We just sort of laughed in awe and shrugged our shoulders. What else could you do?

[Atchafalaya]

Years ago (1969)I was cramming for a parasitology final with a classmate at his house. We took a break around 1 AM and went sit outside on his driveway in lawn chairs and were having a smoke. I saw overhead at my 2 a satellite passing R-L, NE-SW; I told Jerry look there is a satellite and he said that he’d seen it. When it got to our 10 it took a RIGHT, accelerated, and disappeared in less than 2 secs; a serious haul ass. I looked at him and asked did you see that and he replied yes. We talked about it for a few more minutes then went back to the books. That was my UFO experience. It was a 90 degree change in direction and acceleration that was simple but mind boggling to m to this day. I was smoking a Winston BTW./p>

[Atchafalaya]

see 35

[JennysCool]

Yow! :-)

[Atchafalaya]

No BS. Right place and time to see what we saw. I was at USL in Lafayette, La. at the time. Never seen anything like that again and I’ve seen a bunch of satellites since; left to right, right to left.

[Ezekiel]

Just watched the show. Thanks for the heads up.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Triple header in Boston tonight.

ISS / Atlantis at 5:45 PM from the west, followed by USA 193 at 6:20 from the southwest.