Diagram Of A Vogelzang Wood Stoves

satellites with the naked eye

When I speak of artificial satellites in the section of Astronautics exhibition, visitors are surprised that some are very visible to the naked eye.
So the other day, knowing that few minutes after the close of the museum would look a Iridium flare, I invited those who would stop to observe the phenomenon from the square near the museum.
and so we found a score with his nose in the air, the sky is still relatively straightforward to wait.
course it was a moment, a few seconds of intense light (mag -8), but for all visitors present was something quite new and they left happy :-)

This week starts the night visibility of International Space Station (ISS) with a number of steps visible at dinner time.



Look at the ISS is something I do willingly, and indeed, it happened to me several times to observe the event, maybe walking in the city. For the uninitiated, looks like a star usually very bright, brighter than any other dot in the sky. There can be confused with a plane, not blinking, the light is yellow / white and you see because it reflects the sun's rays.
shown below on the roads this week seen from Trento, but within a few seconds, approximated throughout the Trentino (Italy and North):

17 18:50:48 27 19:16:53 W 11 20:48:25 11 20:48:25 NNW 44 19:41:22

Date	May	Starts			Max altitude			Ends
		Time	H	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.
2 Mar	-0.6	19:33:54	10	S	19:34:01	11	S	19:34:01	11	S
3 Mar	-1.2	19:57:55	10	SW	19:59:00	20	SSW	19:59:00	20	SSW
4 Mar		18:48:48 -1.5 10		S			SE		18:52:15 ESE 13
4 Mar	-0.6		20:22:52 WSW 10			20:23:48 WSW 18			20:23:48 WSW 18
5 Mar		19:12:51 -3.0 10			SW 47 19:15:39		SE			E
5 Mar		20:48:15 0.3 10					W
W 6 Mar		19:37:48 -3.1 10			19:40:40 WSW 65					NE
7 Mar	-3.0		18:27:41 10	SW	18:30:30	50	SSE	18:33:19	10	ENE
7 Mar	-1.9	20:03:07	10	W	20:05:42	34	NNW	20:05:42	34	NNW
8 Mar	-3.0	18:52:36	10	WSW	18:55:28	62	NNW	18:58:21	10	ENE
8 Mar	-0.7	20:28:32	10	WNW	20:29:56	20	NW	20:29:56	20	NW
9 Mar	-2.0	19:17:53	10	W	19:20:34	33	NNW	19:22:33	15	NE
9 Mar	0.2	20:53:46	10	NW	20:54:03	12	NW	20:54:03	12	NW
March 10	-1.6	19:43:14	10	WNW	19:45:45	26	N	19:46:37	22	NNE

small guide on how to read the table:

• Mag (magnitude) is the brightness. Order of magnitude as the brightest stars are about 0, -1, the lower the number, the more light .. -3.0 appears to be clear with brighter than any star in the sky.
• The column indicates when it starts Starts to be visible. In our case, almost always nearly horizon. Keep in mind that in our country there are mountains, then it comes up a few seconds / minutes later as indicated. Az (azimuth) indicates the direction. Similarly, read and Max Altitude End
• steps that do not exceed 30 degrees of elevation are hardly visible to the presence of the mountains.
• Council obviously steps from -3 mag :-)
• Station seen across the sky always from West to East maybe a bit 'or a bit further south' in the North, but always travel to East.
• As you can see some day is visible up to 2 times a night .. time to go around the world in 90 min and return over our heads.
  
• forecasts farther in the wrong time could be a few seconds / minute and also as a place in heaven. This is because the orbit of the ISS is changed gradually.

There are several sites that show the steps in the ISS, the Iridium and other satellites.
my favorites are:

• http://www.heavens-above.com which was handling the table above. In a few days you should refer to that linked site that is constantly updated.

• http://www.calsky.com that in addition to providing the weather satellites provides a real celestial events calendar, available for email. Recommended.

Take care, all the nice comments you would like riportaste comment on this post. Whether you have the view that in case of failure:)

All this waiting for the next shuttle mission in starting April 5.
See the bright dots of the ISS and Shuttle cross the sky together is priceless.