Humanity Star passing over head tonight

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neveR

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#230403 22-Feb-2018 14:58

https://www.thehumanitystar.com/

According to there website it should be over the Wellington area at around 9.35 tonight for its first visible fly over of New Zealand.

Hopefully the clouds play nice and we get to see it fly over.

Altitude

335.959 km

Speed

7.725 km/s

Longitude

105.943° E

Latitude

5.746° N

Angle Of Visibility

182.539° South

ETA

2/22/2018, 9:35:15 PM

Thu, 22 Feb 2018 08:35:15 GMT

Predicted Duration

2 minutes and 30 seconds

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#1962277 22-Feb-2018 15:28

Hope you get to see it! I remember the last time Halley's Comet passed by in 1986 it was a bit of a non event. I could see nothing at all, until I used a telephoto lens on a camera & managed to see what looked like a star with a tiny smudge at one side. To sum it up - I think I saw Halley's Comet!

Yogi02

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#1962291 22-Feb-2018 15:56

Be good to finally see it!

ISS going over at 9pm at 54o from NW to SE (Manawatu)

josephhinvest

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#1962324 22-Feb-2018 16:21

This is weird, when I check it says it’s nowhere near NZ until Monday. The tracker seems to be working correctly, are we getting different information?

Cheers,
Joseph

Oblivian

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#1962348 22-Feb-2018 17:01

josephhinvest: This is weird, when I check it says it’s nowhere near NZ until Monday. The tracker seems to be working correctly, are we getting different information?

Cheers,
Joseph

Fast orbit. Go find location and block it, enter manually.

But yes, you will need some good binoculars or a SLR/Scope to pick it up

Oblivian

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#1962351 22-Feb-2018 17:08

http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=43168&lat=-43.5321&lng=172.6362&loc=Christchurch&alt=4&tz=NZST

http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=43168&lat=-41.2865&lng=174.7762&loc=Wellington&alt=13&tz=NZST

For reference.. Naked eye limit is about 6. 10 for binocs (if you beleive the charts)

josephhinvest

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#1962352 22-Feb-2018 17:09

I reckon there’s something up with their tracker. When I check Auckland now, an hour later, it says next pass is Tuesday, previously it said Monday.

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cadman

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#1962354 22-Feb-2018 17:13

The site says Monday 27th for Auckland. It's all a bit of a load of touchy-feely twaddle anyway. Besides, if you need binoculars it excludes the a fair bit of 'humanity'. Fail.

International Space Station is over here again tonight though.

Time: Thu Feb 22 8:59 PM, Visible: 6 min, Max Height: 88°, Appears: 10° above NW, Disappears: 11° above SE

Oblivian

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#1962357 22-Feb-2018 17:21

It's called being in orbit.

Note the track is off the East coast. although visible you can see it's not directly over NZ. So yes the West coast will be on its next rotation

We get the same here for the ISS. With a diagonal pass the time varies a lot

This sucker can change the prediction as it's decaying too

Oblivian

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#1962362 22-Feb-2018 17:31

Don't forget the sun too. Needed for reflection, so if it ends up too low/late a pass shadowed by earth... no blinky

msukiwi

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#1962551 22-Feb-2018 22:20

Well, I saw it.

Visible as a blinking light with the naked eye.

Shame it was obviously in the sun's shadow for part of the pass. (No visible blinking)

It was a perfect night in Christchurch for viewing.

Oblivian

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#1962578 22-Feb-2018 22:44

msukiwi:

Well, I saw it.

Visible as a blinking light with the naked eye.

Shame it was obviously in the sun's shadow for part of the pass. (No visible blinking)

It was a perfect night in Christchurch for viewing.

Ahhcrud. I thought that on my way home that it cleared up nicely. But forgot to set alarm

Live in a good spot for dark skies while the moon is a slither at present.

Shot this on Sat night with the 200mm at the end of the street

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frankv

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#1962615 23-Feb-2018 06:45

Didn't see it. But... huge bonus.... saw a *very* bright meteor over my house! :)

neveR

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#1962716 23-Feb-2018 10:16

I missed it, but the tracker indicates that it will be over head again tonight, so may get a second chance :)

Oblivian

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#1962756 23-Feb-2018 10:31

Yay MS Paint!

My crude drawing of how the visibility of most staellites works. I'm not saying anyone here does being technogeeks ourselves, Lots of family members/people look up and go, thats cool. Forgetting its the reflections of the sun on solar panels/carbon panels/large object that make the 'light' we see. (forgetting how the whole lit moon thing works)

Say we are on the green chunk, unless the angle of attack favours us, something with only a single reflective surface can be tricky.

So although lots of tracking sites will say things are 'visible' it can only calculate reflected angle so much. In the earth shadow = dull/hard to see. In sun or right angle to reflect it to your viewing point.. Hello Iridium flares!

josephhinvest

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#1963206 23-Feb-2018 22:11

Yes!! Thrilled to have seen it just now. We are up at Sandspit, very dark and very clear sky. Woohoo!

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