Last Chance to Spot Shuttle Atlantis in Night Sky

by Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist

Date: 12 May 2010 Time: 07:11 AM ET

Image of NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery & the International Space Station flying over the Netherlands.

The sky is full of stars and galaxies, but eagle-eyed skywatchers can also spot satellites, space shuttles and stations from Earth too. Take a look at some of the best photos of spaceships caught on camera. NASA's space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station are seen in this time-lapsed image as they fly over Leiden, The Netherlands, just before the two spacecraft docked on March 17, 2009 during the STS-119 mission. The shuttle is the object slightly fainter and lower in the sky. Movement is from right to left
CREDIT: Marco Langbroek

Skywatchers across the continental United States will get a fine opportunity this weekend to watch as the space shuttle Atlantis — on its final scheduled mission into space — chases and ultimately docks with the International Space Station (ISS).

Both the shuttle and space station will be visible as separate entities, each appearing as bright "stars" sailing across the evening twilight sky on Friday and Saturday. By Sunday evening, Atlantis will be docked to the ISS, and both will appear as a single bright moving "star."

To reach the space station, Atlantis must be launched when Earth's rotation carries the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Fla. into the plane of the station's orbit. [Photos: Spotting spaceships from Earth.]

For the upcoming STS-132 mission, this will happen in the middle of a 10-minute launch window at 2:19:59 p.m. ET on Friday, May 14. Atlantis will track to the northeast, roughly parallel to the U.S. East Coast.? About 25 minutes later, the ISS, which will be moving along a similar southwest-to-northeast path, will be passing over northern Florida.?

The ISS makes one full circuit of the Earth in approximately 91.5 minutes. Initially, Atlantis will be situated about 67 minutes behind the ISS, but over the next 44 hours following its Friday afternoon liftoff, Atlantis will gradually close that gap, ultimately docking with the space station at 10:27 a.m. ET on Sunday.

During Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, both Atlantis and the ISS will make a number of favorable passes across the contiguous U.S.? Their respective ground tracks will take them on northwest-to-southeast paths.? With a very few exceptions, between one and four crossings of both the shuttle and the ISS will be visible.

How Bright?

Most satellites become visible only when they are in sunlight and the observer is in deep twilight or darkness. This usually means shortly after dusk or before dawn.

Because of its size and configuration of highly reflective solar panels, the space station is now, by far, the brightest man-made object currently in orbit around the Earth. On favorable passes, it?s as brilliant as magnitude -5 in brightness, which would rival even the planet Venus, and outshines Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky some 25-fold.

Some have even caught a glimpse of the ISS in the daytime just prior to sunset or shortly after sunrise. And as a bonus, sunlight glinting directly off the solar panels can sometimes make the ISS appear to briefly flare to super-brilliance.?

The space shuttle also appears as a very bright (magnitude 0 to -1) object, almost matching Sirius, though nowhere near as dazzling as the ISS.

In February both shuttle Endeavour and the ISS could be viewed flying closely in tandem with one another across the sky, but that will not be possible with these upcoming evening crossings of Atlantis and the ISS: Both will appear too widely separated on Friday and Saturday evenings.

Region of visibility

Generally speaking, Atlantis and the ISS will be visible across parts of southern Canada and most of the 48 continental United States.

Many locations will be favored with as many as three or four viewing opportunities. In contrast, Hawaii and Alaska will not have any viewing opportunities, nor will there be any views in Canada roughly north of latitude 50 degrees.

Over the southernmost United States, the viewing opportunities will be reduced to just one or none at all. ?

Some localities will be favored with exceptionally good passes. On Friday evening, the ISS will appear to soar to a point virtually overhead as seen from Toronto (9:10 p.m. ET) and New York (9:11 p.m. ET).

A similarly high overflight of the ISS will be visible from Chicago on Saturday evening (8:33 p.m. CT), and the two docked spacecraft will pass almost directly over Flagstaff, Arizona on Sunday evening (8:30 p.m. MT).

When and where to look

So what is the viewing schedule for your particular hometown? You can easily find out by searching for one of these four popular Web sites: Chris Peat's Heavens Above, Science@NASA's J-Pass, NASA's SkyWatch and Spaceweather.com.

Each will ask for your zip code or city, and respond with a list of suggested spotting times. Predictions computed a few days ahead of time are usually accurate within a few minutes. However, they can change due to the slow decay of the space station's orbit and periodic reboosts to higher altitudes. Check frequently for updates.

Another great site is this one, which provides real-time satellite tracking and shows what part of the Earth the ISS or shuttle happens to be passing over at any given time.?? ??

Gallery - Spotting spaceships from Earth
How to Spot Satellites
Video - See the Space Station from Earth

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York.