Tonight I fully expected to write up a lengthy and probably needlessly esoteric tome on my fascination with irrationals, which I still plan on doing, but now I have something a little more exciting to start with. Tonight as I parked and got out of my car I caught sight of a pair of especially bright spots in the sky, and that threw me for a second. I knew that one of them must be Jupiter, but the second one was a mystery. Saturn would be a candidate, since it's nearly as bright as Jupiter, but it shouldn't be anywhere near Jupiter in the sky right now - then I noticed it was moving. Fast. It was then that I figured out what I was looking at.
A CLOSE ENCOUNTER! Yes, I had one... but this one wasn't with strange visitors from another planet, the pilots were 100% earthling. I paid a visit to Heavens Above just to confirm, and within seconds my suspicions were validated. Observe:
A CLOSE ENCOUNTER! Yes, I had one... but this one wasn't with strange visitors from another planet, the pilots were 100% earthling. I paid a visit to Heavens Above just to confirm, and within seconds my suspicions were validated. Observe:
That's the orbital path of the International Space Station - and it's the culprit all right. The current position and orbital path of the ISS placed it in exactly the right position for me to see it fly by. I checked the details for my location just to be sure, and it was confirmed: an ISS flyover at 7:42 PM. Nice!
You can use Heavens Above to schedule your own close encounter with the ISS, which is easily visible as it passes over - it's very bright - or maybe one evening you'll be lucky enough to have a surprise encounter like I did.
So if you see a really bright star-like point moving at a breakneck pace (and it usually fades in brightness as it passes over, so it could appear to fade in and fade out, very myterious and UFO-like) take a peek at Heavens Above before you go calling in the team from Area 51. There are plenty of man-made satellites in orbit that will catch the sun's light just as the moon and planets do, and many of them shine brightly enough to be frequently mistaken for little green men.
More math coming soon, I promise! It's a crazy vacation weekend and I've had barely any time to calculate anything that isn't my bank balance, and that's far more intimidating than trig. Yeesh.
You can use Heavens Above to schedule your own close encounter with the ISS, which is easily visible as it passes over - it's very bright - or maybe one evening you'll be lucky enough to have a surprise encounter like I did.
So if you see a really bright star-like point moving at a breakneck pace (and it usually fades in brightness as it passes over, so it could appear to fade in and fade out, very myterious and UFO-like) take a peek at Heavens Above before you go calling in the team from Area 51. There are plenty of man-made satellites in orbit that will catch the sun's light just as the moon and planets do, and many of them shine brightly enough to be frequently mistaken for little green men.
More math coming soon, I promise! It's a crazy vacation weekend and I've had barely any time to calculate anything that isn't my bank balance, and that's far more intimidating than trig. Yeesh.
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