Look! Up in the sky!
04/12/18 09:17
Up here in the Portland area, we don't often get clear evening skies in the Fall. Even rarer than that, though, close to the 45th parallel as we are, is the opportunity to see satellites like the International Space Station going over. It seems that they're always going over at the wrong time (really tough to see them during the day!), or it's just too cloudy…
Late yesterday afternoon at about 5:30pm (about an hour after sunset), the ISS rose up in the west, and arced up across the northern sky, disappearing in the east. It was a beautiful spark, zooming nice and steady. What's really amazing is to think about how that structure is about 250 miles above the surface of the Earth, and moving at more than 17000 mph! It's huge, though, almost 240 ft long by over 350 ft wide, and nearly 70 ft tall, with lots of reflective surfaces (all of those solar panels). It catches and reflects a lot of sunlight, and it's always a thrill to see.
Needless to say, there's an app (lots of them, actually) for knowing when the ISS or any number of other visible satellites will be passing over. Those same apps will tell you when the other planets (can you name the six planets visible to the naked eye?) and all the constellations can be seen. If you're interested, send a note and I'll tell you more about those apps!
- Rob M.
Late yesterday afternoon at about 5:30pm (about an hour after sunset), the ISS rose up in the west, and arced up across the northern sky, disappearing in the east. It was a beautiful spark, zooming nice and steady. What's really amazing is to think about how that structure is about 250 miles above the surface of the Earth, and moving at more than 17000 mph! It's huge, though, almost 240 ft long by over 350 ft wide, and nearly 70 ft tall, with lots of reflective surfaces (all of those solar panels). It catches and reflects a lot of sunlight, and it's always a thrill to see.
Needless to say, there's an app (lots of them, actually) for knowing when the ISS or any number of other visible satellites will be passing over. Those same apps will tell you when the other planets (can you name the six planets visible to the naked eye?) and all the constellations can be seen. If you're interested, send a note and I'll tell you more about those apps!
- Rob M.
