Can someone help me read this?

Question

I entered my location at NASA's website and found out that the International Space Station will be flying over my city tomorrow. Will I be able to see it with a cheap telescope? Where do I look and what time? Here's the chart

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/view.cgi?country=United_States&region=Kentucky&city=Louisville

Answer 1

You won't need a telescope, it's easily visible to the unaided eye. Look to the south at the indicated time, and you'll first see it about 11 degrees above the horizon. It will appear as a very bright, unblinking light, moving silently across the sky toward the east. Looks like you'll have some really spectacular sightings on July 2nd and 4th, but you'll need to get up early. Clear skies!

Answer 2

the IIS will move far too fast to find in a telescope.  Binoculars can be helpful, but you'll also see it with the naked eye.

The approach means were it is coming from.  Departure means where it will leave your line of sight.  Basically, you draw a line between the two points, and that's where it will go (straight line).

So, one of the approaches says 11 above S, meaning 11 degrees above south.  That's very close to due south, so if you're looking S, you'll see it.

Hope that helps!

Answer 3

One of the things your list doesn't show is magnitudes.  Sometimes it will be pretty faint and other times it will be nice and bright.  The Heavens Above site has a more complete chart.  I looked up your coordibates and got the information.  I used downtown Louisville as the location.  If you are very far away from there, the time could be a little different.  E-mail me s more exact location and I can give you better information.

The one for tomorrow is not a very good one.  Notice the altitude.  The ones that go much higher are better.  Over the next week these will be the best ones for you:

July 2.  5:19:24 am.  That one goes almost straight overhead and reaches a -2.4 magnitude, which is a lot brighter than the one tomorrow.

July 4.  4:34:08 am.  This is your best one for the upcoming week.  It's -2.5 magnitude and reaches an altitude of 82 degrees and the sky is still nice and dark.  None of the others this week get anywhere near that high.

To find them, look in the direction the chart gives you.  The first number in the approach and departure column is the altitude where it will first be visible, in degrees.  Zero is the horizon and 90 degrees is straight up.  Estimate in between.  Notice the two good ones I gave you start very high in the sky -- almost straight up.  This is because it is hidden by the earth's shadow until that point.  When you first see it, it will just be coming into the sunlight.

Also watch out for the time.  As you get much past 5 am, the sky is getting too bright for it to be a very good sighting.

Aiming a telescope at it will be difficult and since you said it was cheap, it probably won't be worth the effort.  You'll spend your whole couple of minutes trying to keep it in view.  I recommend naked eye or binoculars.

Answer 4

It's easily visible with the naked eye, as a bright point, and moves fast enough that it is difficult to follow with a telescope.

Answer 5

You do not need a telescope. Just look with your eyes. The space station will look like a bright star passing over at about the same apparent speed as a high flying airliner. (But of course it is really much higher and going much faster.)

The DURATION is how many minutes it is visible.

MAX ELEV is how high in the sky it gets as it passes over. 90 is directly overhead and 0 is just on the horizon.

APPROACH is the direction to look when it first appears

DEPARTURE is the direction you look to see it as it vanishes from sight.

Each row in the table is one pass. I explain the first 3 rows in words here:

Sunday morning, 5:43 AM it appears low in the south, never gets very high in the sky and disappears in the East.

Tuesday morning, July 1 at 4:56 AM it does pretty much the same

Wednesday July 2 is a good one. At 5:20 AM  it appears in the southwest, goes almost directly overhead and disappears in the East.