If the skies are clear, it just so happens that most days over the holiday, you can get a great view at round about teatime of the International Space Station serenely floating across the sky.

Here's a calendar giving approximate times and directions:
[urlhttp://goo.gl/D4Uc1[/url
I've highlighted the potentially bets ones (where the ISS climbs to a reasonable height) but you could potentially see them all, clear skies permitting.

So for example tonight if you look low in the SW at 17:42 you'll see the ISS slowly approach and rise, until at 17:44:26 it will be fairly low (33 degrees, i.e 1/3rd from the horizon to straight up) and due South - then it will suddenly "disappear" (as the ISS passes into the Earth's shadow), just after it passes underneath Jupiter.

You can get individual sky charts with a diagram of every pass (and lots more) at the excellent [urlhttp://www.heavens-above.com/[/url

Here's the 17:42 pass, from your right to left:


While you're waiting, you may if the sky is clear see some faint moving objects. These are not UFOs, but are actually various satellites which will happen all to be criss-crossing the sky all at the same time


Satellite------------Time of peak elevation, and direction
H-2A R/B=#FFFFFF------------17:34:09 74° WNW travelling to SSW
Cosmos 1842=#FFFFFF--------17:34:18 74° E travelling to NNE
APEX=#FFFFFF-----__-----------17:33:14 70° ESE travelling to NE
Cosmos 2369 Rocket=#FFFFFF-17:35:59 69° NE travelling to SE
Lacrosse 4 Rocket=#FFFFFF-----17:36:33 31° NW travelling to NNE

If we get clouded out (sadly more nights than not) don't worry, get on heavens-above.com any clear night and you can get all this info for free.

Enjoy, and Merry Christmas all.

As part of my duty as Dads Taxi I am often afforded the privilege of collecting my youngest from her workplace near the airport late at night and on Sunday night at around 11pm in a clear sky we saw a very bright star (no, this isn't going to turn into the Nativity story), much brighter than any other.

We were on the Chevin road at the time and as the airport runway lies strictly south to north it was easy to see that the star was in line with direct north so I assumed that it was the north star (I'm not just a pretty face) but could it have been anything else - it was far brighter than anything else in the sky but it was an incredibly clear and still night.


Can I also add, I'm fascinated by this astrology thing and space travel (I'm a child of the 50s, we all expected to be living on the moon by now) but I'm totally incapable of transposing the diagram above into the night sky, I think I can spot "the plough" but then as soon as I do I see another one in a different place

Did you know I was the first person in the UK to gain their Scouts Astronomy badge in the UK? I was also a member of the Salford Astronomy Club.

That was Vega. Would have been low, but easily the brightest object in the northern sky. Not the Pole Star, which is actually quite faint, but if you are still around then, Vega will oddly enough be promoted to pole star in around the year 13,725!

You were actually viewing live a scene from the past (1986), as that's when the light you saw actually set off from Vega.


No need for that sort of language

- it's Astronomy not that "astrology" sheeiiiite!!


Print it out and stand facing due South. The 'S' is then directly south, on the horizon, and the centre of the chart is directly overhead.

If you turn to face directly West - just turn the chart clockwise through 90 degrees, so that it is sideways, and so that the "W" now appears to you to be at the bottom.

The [url=http://www.astronomynow.com/sky_chart.shtmlAstronomy Now sky chart[/url makes it a bit more user friendly.

If you face due North at around 7pm, the Plough is above the northern horizon, and the "right way up" so it's hard to miss. Above that, at about 45 degrees, is a pretty unremarkable little star, but still easily the brightest in a patch of very faint sky; that's Polaris.

No, but respect!

The last two stars of the Plough (at the metal end) point to the North Star at about five times the distance between those last two Plough stars.
That's the easy way to find the North Star (Polaris).
And it's significance is that everything else appears to revolve around it while it stays motionless as the Earth rotates.
And since we rotate anti-clockwise, the stars seem to rotate clockwise in the night sky.
I thought that was common knowledge.
I'm appalled!

Except, we don't. For people in Australia, for example, the earth rotates clockwise, and the stars appear to rotate anti-clockwise in the night sky. And that's before I start on about people on the equator.

I am aware of the differences thank you.
We do have some antipodean visitors on here, but not many so my comments were not meant to relate to them, and since we are talking about the North star, there was no ambiguity.
I was talking about the Northern Hemisphere.


As for knowledge about astronomy, you only have to look at MF's contribution to realise it's dire, hence the wink I used.
I hope that clears that one up.

Cheers, I'm going to try that tonight, the dog will think I'm barmy while we stare at the sky together but what the hell.

And apologies for the astronomy/astrology gaff - if it makes it any easier to bear I believe that Russell Grant should be burned at the charlatans torch post along with various priests/archbishops and QVC presenters.


PS - your explanation of Vega was uncannily correct, it was low in the sky and by far the brightest thing in a dark landscape.

PPS - for other astronomy duffers, basically if I stand in my garden holding that plan (above) then I'm stood in the middle of that plan, the sky directly above my head is also the middle of that plan, and the plan changes day by day on that linked web site ?

Aye. Which is why "west" looks to be in the wrong place, but isn't. If you could print it out on clear acetate, and stick it inside a big clear glass bowl, that sort of explains it.

Bear in mind you want a plan for the hour you'll be watching, it changes a lot as the hours roll by.

Hee hee,
I can remember myself and my mates sitting at the side of the road (east lancs at Astley) trying to imagine what life would be like in the year 2000. We couldn't even count up the years to 2000 this was about 1970 and we were around 7 years old. We knew there would be Martians on earth, that was a given but one or two weren't keen on staying around Astley & Leigh and quite fancied living on the moon probably when they retired from work. It is a bit late for us now though one or two are always spaced out but there has been enough technology and development in our life time to be pretty impressed. I can remember at the age of 8 or 9 you would run home for three miles to tell your Mum that you were staying out for a few extra hours then run back to join your mates. Nowadays they've got mobile phones at that age the lazy buggers.

I saw Saturn and it's rings through telescopes at Jodrell Bank as a kid that was fantastic and absolutely incomprehensible to understand how far away it actually was.

Quite a timely thread, this. Anyone have any recommendations about these ? www.nauticalia.com/uk-c/optical/ ... index.html

Quite a timely thread, this. Anyone have any recommendations about these ? www.nauticalia.com/uk-c/optical/ ... index.html

Quote ="El Barbudo"Quite a timely thread, this. Anyone have any recommendations about these ? www.nauticalia.com/uk-c/optical/ ... index.html'" Good view of ISS from here tonight. Of those, i don't like the "plastic telescopes" much. For mine, you'd be better off with a Philips [url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Planisphere-Northern-Degrees-Astronomy/dp/054008817X/ref=pd_cp_ce_2Planisphere[/url and a red LED torch. The Celestron Sky Scout OTOH is an amazing piece of kit. I have never tried one but it has had great reviews and being "point and shoot" GPS based, is as foolproof as I suppose it gets for a budget. Cheap it ain't, (£175 or so minimum) but I reckon not that dear for what it is.

Quote ="El Barbudo"Quite a timely thread, this. Anyone have any recommendations about these ? www.nauticalia.com/uk-c/optical/ ... index.html'" Good view of ISS from here tonight. Of those, i don't like the "plastic telescopes" much. For mine, you'd be better off with a Philips [url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Planisphere-Northern-Degrees-Astronomy/dp/054008817X/ref=pd_cp_ce_2Planisphere[/url and a red LED torch. The Celestron Sky Scout OTOH is an amazing piece of kit. I have never tried one but it has had great reviews and being "point and shoot" GPS based, is as foolproof as I suppose it gets for a budget. Cheap it ain't, (£175 or so minimum) but I reckon not that dear for what it is.

Maybe your last chance to see the International Space Station tonight till next year, as later evening is the only sign of clear skies for the foreseeable. It will come across between 17:30 and 17:36 and at approx 17:36 it will "collide with"* Jupiter - which is the bright thing towards the south east.

[size=85=#40FFFFOr would, but for Jupiter being many millions of miles more distant![/size

Here's the track

In terms of ISS watching, I tend to use this website for viewing times etc. : spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/si ... on=England It also gives details of the additional resupply / shift change missions etc. As long as you know your compass, such as roughly what direction North is from where you are standing, then the rest is fairly easy to work out and especially if you pick observation nights where ISS is visable over the horizon for 3-4 minutes. It is that bright (well brighter than any star in the sky) then as long as the night is clear and you're broadly looking in the right direction, then there's usually no problems seeing it. As for the bright 'star', given its prominence in the night sky at the moment, could the object be Jupiter ? Other than the Moon, is this is about the brightest natural object visable at the moment and has in the days leading up to Christmas been in the same part of the sky as the Moon. PS - I hold a GCSE in Astronomy, if that counts ?

In terms of ISS watching, I tend to use this website for viewing times etc. : spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/si ... on=England It also gives details of the additional resupply / shift change missions etc. As long as you know your compass, such as roughly what direction North is from where you are standing, then the rest is fairly easy to work out and especially if you pick observation nights where ISS is visable over the horizon for 3-4 minutes. It is that bright (well brighter than any star in the sky) then as long as the night is clear and you're broadly looking in the right direction, then there's usually no problems seeing it. As for the bright 'star', given its prominence in the night sky at the moment, could the object be Jupiter ? Other than the Moon, is this is about the brightest natural object visable at the moment and has in the days leading up to Christmas been in the same part of the sky as the Moon. PS - I hold a GCSE in Astronomy, if that counts ?

Saw it again last night on my Dads Taxi routine (has been cloudy recently but last night was a bit clearer), its a bit higher in the sky than it was when I first mentioned it and almost directly north (not checked it with a compass though).

I'm on Dads Taxi duty tonight again and then will be on NYE at 3am-ish so if its clear will check it out at that time and if I remember will take a compass bearing too.

Quote ="AdmiralHanson"In terms of ISS watching, I tend to use this website for viewing times etc. : spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/si ... on=England It also gives details of the additional resupply / shift change missions etc. '" The site is good for info such as that, but [urlhttp://www.heavens-above.com[/url is far better for the purpose of watching satellites. The killer feature is if you register and create your actual location, you can print out a sky map showing the path the ISS (for example) will take; and you can print out star charts for fainter targets. Quote ="AdmiralHanson"... As for the bright 'star', given its prominence in the night sky at the moment, could the object be Jupiter ? '" No, Jupiter is in the south, SE to SW. I thought we'd established the low bright thing in the NW/N late night was definitely Vega!

Quote ="AdmiralHanson"In terms of ISS watching, I tend to use this website for viewing times etc. : spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/si ... on=England It also gives details of the additional resupply / shift change missions etc. '" The site is good for info such as that, but [urlhttp://www.heavens-above.com[/url is far better for the purpose of watching satellites. The killer feature is if you register and create your actual location, you can print out a sky map showing the path the ISS (for example) will take; and you can print out star charts for fainter targets. Quote ="AdmiralHanson"... As for the bright 'star', given its prominence in the night sky at the moment, could the object be Jupiter ? '" No, Jupiter is in the south, SE to SW. I thought we'd established the low bright thing in the NW/N late night was definitely Vega!