question about the ISS viewed from ground.

last night, the sky was overcast, with some more dense clouds. A very bright object flew across the sky at a reasonable pace. a lot faster than an airplane. or about as fast as a low flying helicopter. It appeared bright yellow, very bright, even through the overcast. (it never dimmed because of cloud cover)

once further away it disappeared, most likely the reflective zone of the sun.

now, the ISS was scheduled to fly north/east over a location 2 hours (driving) south of my location. the object I witnessed was also travelling north/east.

I would just like to confirm that what I saw matches the description of a ground viewing of the ISS.

the reason i'm asking is because It appeared a lot "stranger" than the last time I saw the ISS. I remember it as being white, this was clearly yellow.

Did you manage to get any pictures or video feed of this event?

I attempted to get some photographs but it was moving too quickly for low light and the pictures come out as lines due to the exposure time required.

The ISS Dimensions From Wiki...

Mass 417,289 kg (919,960 lb)

Length 51 m (167.3 ft)
from PMA-2 to Zvezda

Width 109 m (357.5 ft)
along truss, arrays extended

Height c. 20 m (c. 66 ft)
nadir–zenith, arrays forward–aft
(27 November 2009)[dated info]

Now go to Google maps and type in anywhere in the world you can think of, and try to find an object on the ground with the same dimensions as the ISS.
Zoom out to about cruising altitude of a commercial aircraft, 30,000-35,000 FT.... can you see the object on the ground now? How about zooming out further to ISS height perspective..... can you see that 51m X 109m object? What if it was lit up really bright from direct sunlight with a blackened background.... how large would that "light" be from that perspective?

My point is that I'm not so sure these objects we're seeing are ISS or satellites, those objects would be way too small to see with the naked eye from the ground.

I have seen the ISS fly over once before, well that is what the tv said it was so I knew when to look up. I was surprised by how much it stands out and the speed as well, one of the faster satellites. This was a few years ago, not sure how it is going these days.

I kind of see your point, but its due to the reflection of the sun, just like the moon. The only reason I'm confused about this is that... Ive seen many a satellite... and The ISS 3 times, twice with discovery. this looked completely different. super bright, yellow, and was not affected by the cloud cover.

The only reason I even considered it to be the iss is because the flight patterns "kind of" matched up.

My location is -barrie ontario canada saw this around 9:15 pm.

I don't know the exact time because right after I checked the ISS location a police officer knocked on my door. my nerves were pretty shot after all that lol.

Here is a site that you can track the space station and many other satellites with.

I hope this helps in the future.

www.n2yo.com...

reply to post by liejunkie01


hey, yeah thats the site i was using when checking its location. I am in barrie, iss traveled by lake ontario, through quebec/ontario border and continued east, right after I saw the object I looked at this site and it was just past newfoundland.

so, within 5 min of observation it traveled through 2 provinces and was over the pacific ocean. I know its travelling like 7km/s or whatever, but can it really travel that far in 5 min?

The ISS is the same magnitude of brightness in the night sky as Jupiter, so after the Moon, Venus, the ISS is the 4th brightest object in the sky, brighter than any star. Some contend that since the last solar array has been installed the ISS is now brighter than Jupiter.

The ISS usually traverses the visible sky in 3 minutes. There are a myriad of tools and aids to help you locate and photograph the ISS some nice evening.

reply to post by OUNjahhryn


I know that the ISS makes a complete revolution of the Earth in about 90 minutes. I have personally seen it several times. A few times while the shuttle was near it. It only is visible horizon to horizon for only a few minutes. I have not looked at a map of where you are. I am about out of time for now. Good luck on your quest.

reply to post by Illustronic


This was brighter than the moon.

can someone give me a star or flag or something, Im really trying to find an answer to this.

reply to post by OUNjahhryn


The ISS varies speed slightly depending on its altitude, so take the average LEO speed of 17,500 mph, the ISS orbits the earth every 91 minutes, covers nearly 292 miles a minute, or 4.86 miles a second. So in 3 minutes the ISS went nearly 875 miles, so yeah, in a few minutes the ISS speeds past even a couple of Canadian provinces.

reply to post by OUNjahhryn


Nothing is going to be brighter than the moon in the night sky unless it is in our atmosphere, usually undergoing a massive explosion.

reply to post by OUNjahhryn


I will also add that I have seen a space station flare. Me and my mother were watching what we thought was a satellite and the darn thing flared up like a camera flash. My mother laughed and said that they were taking a picture of us. I later went home and did some research. Here is what I found.

Sporting a new pair of solar arrays and functioning as ports for four docked spacecraft, the International Space Station (ISS) is the brightest it’s ever been--so bright that ground astronomers are seeing “ISS flares” from sunlight bouncing off all its shiny surfaces.

“Of course, a ‘flare’ would briefly make it appear much brighter,” Rao said.

The space station is currently four times brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky; its luminance rivals Jupiter but is less than that of Venus, which has an apparent magnitude of around -4..

www.space.com/3942-backyard-astronomers-bright-space-station-flares.html

Originally posted by Illustronic
reply to post by OUNjahhryn

 

Nothing is going to be brighter than the moon in the night sky unless it is in our atmosphere, usually undergoing a massive explosion.

if this wasn't brighter than that moon, then it was on par. I swear to you. my gf can attest to this as well. This is why Im bringing it up on ats because i convinced myself it was the ISS but it just seemed like... something else. I don't know, maybe theres some videos of the iss from ground i can find...

also, the ball of light, including "aura" seemed, from my vantage point, to be as big as a street light. is this normal?

yeah, I saw it too. and I agree with you it looked a bit different, but I just suspect it being from the time of day, location, and sun. at one point I saw a halo around it.

should of saw it when the shuttle was departing, it looked really bright.

reply to post by OUNjahhryn


What can I say, I'd have to have seen it myself to guess. A grand opening fireworks display, or someone testing one of those bright flash firework that usually precedes a loud boom. There are distant ball lightning phenomena, so distant you wouldn't hear them. There are other natural phenomena in the atmosphere I'm not privy to at the moment. You also may have caught an exploding distant rocket stage, once the main flash explosion quickly exhausts it could be so distant you wouldn't see its lasting glow or descend.

I don't know, but you don't seem to be prying for a UFO explanation, I don't think. If it was a supernova explosion it would be all over the news, and last a couple of weeks.

Here's how the ISS pass from Barrie, Ontario would have looked last night:



More info [url=http://www.heavens-above.com/PassDetails.asp?Size=600&SatID=25544&lat=44.383&lng=-79.700&alt=224&loc=Barrie&TZ=EST&Date=40652.0555875188]here[/ur l].

Originally posted by Illustronic
reply to post by OUNjahhryn

 

What can I say, I'd have to have seen it myself to guess. A grand opening fireworks display, or someone testing one of those bright flash firework that usually precedes a loud boom. There are distant ball lightning phenomena, so distant you wouldn't hear them. There are other natural phenomena in the atmosphere I'm not privy to at the moment. You also may have caught an exploding distant rocket stage, once the main flash explosion quickly exhausts it could be so distant you wouldn't see its lasting glow or descend.

I don't know, but you don't seem to be prying for a UFO explanation, I don't think. If it was a supernova explosion it would be all over the news, and last a couple of weeks.

it wasn't a flash or a flare/explosion. It was really bright the whole way across the sky, and did not change brightness, flicker, or have nav lights.

UFO is my only opposing explanation, for the simple fact that IF it wasn't the ISS, I have no idea what it was. Ive never seen an object in the sky that bright.

the chart someone posted below you, doesn't help much, as I cant picture a 3D representation of that. It seemed to travel in an arch like that though, only the arch would be reversed. I'm 90% sure this was ISS. But that 10% leaves me confused.

I should probably just forget about it. but it's sticking with me for some reason.

reply to post by nataylor


hey that website info helped. it must have been the ISS because the times are almost spot on. thank you sir


I wonder why It was so ridiculously bright though, even though overcast.