[SGVLUG] OT: Space Station and Space Shuttle visible over LA tonight

[Claude Felizardo]

On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 3:53 PM, Chris Nolan <chris at invert.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 3:31 PM, Claude Felizardo <cafelizardo at gmail.com> wrote:
>> For anyone interested, both the international Space Station and the
>> Space Shuttle will be visible from the greater Los Angeles area
>> tonight.
>>
>> For ISS, it starts about 7:15 (sunset is about 7:02 tonight) in the
>> SW, passes nearly overhead  at 7:18 and ends about 7:21 in the NE.
>>
>> STS is in a slightly different lower path rising about 7:35 in the
>> SWS, reaches max alt of 38 degrees in the NW and disappears about 7:40
>> in the NNE.
>>
>> Satellites look like bright moving stars whose brightness changes as
>> the sun angle between you and the object changes.  The ISS will be
>> very bright like an airplane except w/o flashing lights.  For details
>> and more accurate predicts for your location, check out
>> heavens-above.com and enter your location then select a satellite.
>> And don't forget to keep an eye out for Iridium flares.
>
> Thanks for the info Claude.
>
> I was camping with friends and family along the Colorado River over
> the weekend and we saw a satellite.  Do you know of a database that
> allows you to put in coordinates and a date/time period from the past
> to see what flew over?  I can find a ton of sites for future
> prediction but none for the past.  Does something like this exist?
>
> Thanks,
> Chris

How long was it visible?  What time of day?

Try the heavens-above website.  There's a link where you can pick your
location using a map then you can check the various satellites and hit
the previous link and backtrack maybe a week or two.

claude