While this probably has nothing to do with homesteading, I have been trying to see the space station since they added the new solar panels. If you can catch the orbit and sun conditions just right, it should appear as a bright, non-blinking star going from west to east. The best times to see it are within an hour before sunrise or after sunset.

If you want to have your children experience a sighting, go to http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/realtime/track/spacecraft.html. It lets you see where the station is now, and where it's next orbit will take it.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), February 09, 2001

Answers

DJ said to tell you thanks.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), February 09, 2001.

Hey Ken, you found one of my favorite sites. I find it so interesting what they can do now and that site really gives some good pictures etc.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), February 09, 2001.

Before you go to that site, unless you live by a large city, make sure you have your long. and lat. coordinates handy so that you can find your siting times. (we live in the middle of no where!) We are excited about tonight at 7:26.17 YIPPY! Better start out the door at 7:26.01 though...we are a bit slow!!!! THANKS KEN! The kids are all excited now!!! Hope it is a clear night!!!!!!!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), February 10, 2001.

For those "kids" that need help making sense of "degrees of elevation". If you hold your fist straight out, it will cover about 10 degrees of elevation. So if the space station is up 30 degrees, that's 3 fists up from the horizon. 45 degress is half way between the horizon and straight overhead. 90 degrees is straight up. And that sucker MOVES. :)

Happy Seeing,

(:raig

-- Craig Miller (cmiller@ssd.com), February 10, 2001.

If you want a real thrill, see if you can find a local Ham radio orgainzaton in your area and have the kids talk to someone on the spacestation. You find a list of ham radio clubs at http://www.arrl.org/field/club/clubsearch.phtml 39 clubs are listed in Tn.

I have not talked with the ISS yet, but have talked to the shuttle and MIR spacestation.

-- Gary (gws@redbird.net), February 15, 2001.

Thanks, Ken! Wow, it really is neat to be able to see and identify, and track it! Makes it more "real" to the kids, too! Great info, thanks again! Jan

-- Jan in CO (Janice12@aol.com), February 16, 2001.

RE: Craig's post

If you're not aware...

A 'fist' at arm's length is about equal to a hour of time. Start at the horizon and stack fists until you get to the sun's current position. How many fists is about equal to the number of hours until sunset. (or you can work the other way, too)

You do have to have a clue as to what track the sun will take as it crosses the sky to make this work.

And it doesn't matter the size of the fist. The fist-to arm length-to eye distance takes care of this.

If I'm wrong about this, please let me know. I'v been doing this for years and it *seems* to work for me.

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), February 16, 2001.

http://www.satscape.co.uk/ Check out this URL. Really great freeware tracks all satalites (or just your choice)at once listing arrival time at your location. TomB

-- TomB (tombasin@alltel.net), May 31, 2001.