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Show in the Early Tuesday Evening Sky - March 8, 2011
By Stu Benner
The weather cooperated and gave many of us in the mid-Atlantic a great show on Tuesday evening - rivalling the Monday night show. This was the last time to see the Space Shuttle Discovery in orbit. The
The actual time/spacing between the spacecraft was a little greater than that projected by my plots at the bottom of this page. Apparently there was some adjustment made to the orbit of the shuttle since I obtained the orbital elements. This adjustment was probably associated with the preparations for the shuttle's final landing that occurred the next morning at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The Shuttle led the way across the sky from the Northwest to the Southeast. Both objects were very bright, the Shuttle being dimmer than the ISS because it is smaller and has less reflecting surface area.
Each spacecraft, while still above the horizon, faded from view at nearly 40 degrees elevation in the Southeastern sky as they passed into the shadow of the Earth, no longer being illuminated by the Sun.
I was able to take some photos of both spacecraft during the event using my Nikon D3000 using a 55 mm lens at F5.6 and 10 second exposure time.
In this first image, the bright line is the Shuttle rising in the Northwest. It crosses directly in front of the star
In this next image, the bright line is the ISS rising in the Northwest. Notice that the path of the ISS is not directly over Almaak.
In this last image, the bright line is the ISS is setting in the Southeastern sky. Notice that it dims as it nears the end of its track. This is because it's fading into the shadow of the Earth. My timing was a little off and I didn't capture the ISS disappearing (or 'winking out'). Just a couple seconds after this exposure ended, the ISS winked out!
Below are a few pictures of the track of the ISS and STS-133. The time represented by each picture is in the lower right hand side. Imagine the pictures being placed on sky above your head (notice the compass directions on the picture). The yellow and red line shows their path in the sky above you. While on the yellow portion of the line, the ISS and STS-133 were visible (lit by the Sun). They were not visible when on the red portion of the line (they're in the shadow of the Earth). The last picture shows the track of the ISS and STS-133 plotted on a map of the Earth.
Screenshots of tracking data generated using the freeware satellite tracking program Orbitron.
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