Can you see the Mir space station with the naked eye?

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'Cause someone told me you can and pointed out a light in the dusk sky. It was stationary, and was visible for about 30 mins then disappeared. He told me it was a space station and was only visible at certain times when the sun hit it just right.

Sounds kinda off to me. How would I find out?

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:29 (twenty years ago)

g00gle.com?

― tres letraj (tehresa), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:32 (twenty years ago)

http://documents.wolfram.com/applications/astronomer/Notebooks/MirSpaceStation.html

The first two paragraphs seem to confirm this.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:35 (twenty years ago)

That's excellent! Wow. With the clear frosty nights we've been noticing lots of different lights in the sky, noticed more shooting stars, planets etc.

I have very little knowledge of the skies but I can't deny that it's interesting up there.

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:43 (twenty years ago)

Didn't Mir crash to earth some years ago?

― scotstvo (scotstvo), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:45 (twenty years ago)

Ahem

― scotstvo (scotstvo), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:47 (twenty years ago)

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:48 (twenty years ago)

i mean, no, it wasn't mir

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:49 (twenty years ago)

Perhaps it's Hubble then...

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:49 (twenty years ago)

mir's ghost!?!

― latebloomer: Grab my puffy nipples and make a wish. (latebloomer), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:49 (twenty years ago)

There is the International Space Station, of course.

― scotstvo (scotstvo), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:50 (twenty years ago)

Mir's crashed & burned but you can see the ISS.

― robster (robster), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:51 (twenty years ago)

xpost

― robster (robster), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:51 (twenty years ago)

no. neither hubble nor the ISS are geosynchronous. they would zip across the sky in about 1-2 minutes, not hang over the horizon for 30 minutes.

it was prob venus, which is quite bright right now.

― vahid (vahid), Thursday, 5 January 2006 08:52 (twenty years ago)

It was rather low whatever it was. I'm sure I've identified Venus before in the sky, isn't that quite orangey-red looking?

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Thursday, 5 January 2006 09:01 (twenty years ago)

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Thursday, 5 January 2006 09:06 (twenty years ago)

Mars was (maybe still is) visible to the naked eye recently I think.

― scotstvo (scotstvo), Thursday, 5 January 2006 09:14 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, it was from December. It was kinda orangey too, not as red as I'd have thought, but then I don't own a telescope.

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Thursday, 5 January 2006 09:16 (twenty years ago)

I saw Mir many times when it was still in orbit.

Venus is visible in the early evenings.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 5 January 2006 10:25 (twenty years ago)

ha, dad asked me the exact same thing whilst i was home for christmas. used kstars software (http://edu.kde.org/kstars/ linux only?) to find out it was Venus (was low in the sky to the south west at the time)

(http://stellarium.sourceforge.net/ has a windows version. both are Free Software)

― koogs (koogs), Thursday, 5 January 2006 12:55 (twenty years ago)

Thanks, I'll download this and have a look at home.

― Rumpie (lil drummer girl parumpumpumpu), Thursday, 5 January 2006 13:46 (twenty years ago)

i saw a flyby of ISS a few months ago. no telescope needed.

― HAKKEBOFFER (eman), Thursday, 5 January 2006 13:51 (twenty years ago)

I'm amazed that given the ambuguity if the thread title no one's made a joke about Mir being invisible yet!

― mei (mei), Thursday, 5 January 2006 14:33 (twenty years ago)

There is a satellite which has big sails which shine brightly when the sun catches them in certain ways... you can get some software on the internet which tells you to the minute or second when you will be able to see it.

I appreciate that this has already been mentioned up thread, but I want to feel like a winner.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 5 January 2006 22:59 (twenty years ago)

Being able to spot satellites travelling across the heavens is kinda fun.

― kingfish pibb Xtra (kingfish 2.0), Thursday, 5 January 2006 23:04 (twenty years ago)

"it's wrong to wish on space hardware"

― ailsa (ailsa), Thursday, 5 January 2006 23:09 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

This seems to be the only relevant thread I can find but we've been able to view the ISS flying overhead the last day or 2. Wasn't expecting it to be so visible! You could see coloured blinking ligts (reflections?), it moved REALLY FAST, it was only in the sky for about 3 mins.

― millivanillimillenary (Trayce), Friday, 4 December 2009 00:04 (sixteen years ago)

they've added so much to it that it's really big now and very much visible. even more visible when the space shuttle is visiting. it's easily the brightest thing in the sky but the moon and it's awesome! there are people up there!

― wmlynch, Friday, 4 December 2009 00:19 (sixteen years ago)

can u see the giant guns

― mod only knows who i'd ban without u (s1ocki), Friday, 4 December 2009 00:20 (sixteen years ago)

lol.

It looked like a plane, it was that visible/lit up. Like some kind of disco ship.

― millivanillimillenary (Trayce), Friday, 4 December 2009 00:33 (sixteen years ago)

And I assume the rapid transit across the skyline (seemingly still on the horizon for a while then swoops out over the high dome of the sky then down the other side - all in about 1-2 mins), is the spin of the planet. Which made me think "woah shit, we spin fast".

― millivanillimillenary (Trayce), Friday, 4 December 2009 00:34 (sixteen years ago)

you can see when it will pass above you on this site: http://www.heavens-above.com/

― wmlynch, Friday, 4 December 2009 01:01 (sixteen years ago)

Theres a direct pass over us again tonight

21:08:09 10 NW 21:11:06 77 SW 21:14:04 10 SE

So if its clear it'll be much like the other night's pass. Nice. Though I may be on my way into the city at that point and miss it :/

― millivanillimillenary (Trayce), Friday, 4 December 2009 01:17 (sixteen years ago)

found this jpg while googling for space station sightings, it is awesome

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2005/images/solarflares/Koeman.jpg

― a. cole, u thic (acoleuthic), Friday, 4 December 2009 01:18 (sixteen years ago)

And I assume the rapid transit across the skyline (seemingly still on the horizon for a while then swoops out over the high dome of the sky then down the other side - all in about 1-2 mins), is the spin of the planet. Which made me think "woah shit, we spin fast".
― millivanillimillenary (Trayce), Friday, December 4, 2009 12:34 AM (44 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This is not the earth spinning (well, mostly). The ISS completes an orbit in 90 minutes, for an average speed (relative to the centre of the earth) of about 20,000 mph. by comparison, the surface of the earth is spinning at about 1.5/24 = 1/16th that, i.e. "only" 1000 mph or so.

― caek, Friday, 4 December 2009 01:24 (sixteen years ago)

I saw the shuttle and the space station Thanksgiving evening; I think the shuttle had recently separated and was coming home. Someone at the place I was at told us it was about to happen based on some app on his phone. It does move pretty fast, and was bright but not disco-bally. When we looked 90 minutes later I didn't see either one.

― nickn, Friday, 4 December 2009 01:42 (sixteen years ago)

you can see when it will pass above you on this site: http://www.heavens-above.com/

Some alternate methods:
via Twitter: http://orbitingfrog.com/blog/over-twitter/
via iPhone app: http://www.gosoftworks.com/GoSatWatch/GoSatWatch.html

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 4 December 2009 01:46 (sixteen years ago)

Crazily underexposed/digitally noisy photo of the ISS passing over my head.

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 4 December 2009 01:49 (sixteen years ago)

ooh at 6 minutes past midday it goes right over london!

― a. cole, u thic (acoleuthic), Friday, 4 December 2009 01:55 (sixteen years ago)

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