toolbag

[Plane]

The space station's famous sidekick, the ISS Toolbag, is circling Earth and producing flashes of light bright enough to record using off-the-shelf digital cameras. Peter Rosén sends this report from downtown Stockholm, Sweden:

"I photographed the toolbag when it passed above the moon on Dec. 3rd. It was invisible to the naked eye, but my camera (a Canon 40D) detected it in a series of 4 second exposures. The toolbag must be rotating as the light seems to flash and disappear." (continued below)

When the tool bag was given an accidental shove , it departed the space station and is in its own orbit.

But the toolbag orbit is related to the space station orbit , if it is circling the earth a bout 2 mph faster than the station , it would seem likely that after enough time has passed for the distance of the orbit to be traversed at 2mph , the tool bag is destined to rendezvous again with the station.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station

The ISS orbit is 190 miles up.   Approximately a circle 11258 miles circumference.

So in 234 days the toolbag ought to catch up from behind and an alert astronaut should be able to snag it with a boat hook.

[BSB]

cool

[Plane]

A little detail spoils this , the ISS will be boosted now and then to maintain its low orbit , the tool bag will not , so the tool bag will probably gradually loose speed and height, perhaps passing under the ISS too far off to be caught.

Eventually it will be a shooting star.

[BSB]

Still cool. There's something about a human's "toolbag" circling around the earth 190 miles up that I like.

[Plane]

COLORADO SUPERBOLIDE: Last night, Dec. 6th at 1:28 a.m. MST, a meteor of stunning brightness lit up the skies of Colorado. Astronomer Chris Peterson photographed the event using a dedicated all-sky meteor camera in the town of Guffey, near Colorado Springs:



"In seven years of operation, this is the brightest fireball I've ever recorded," says Peterson. "I estimate the terminal explosion at magnitude -18, more than 100 times brighter than a full Moon."

Fireballs this bright belong to a rare category of meteors called superbolides. They are caused by small asteroids measuring a few to 10 meters in diameter and massing hundreds of metric tons. Superbolides trigger seismic detectors on the ground, produce waves of infrasound that can travel thousands of miles, and they are tracked by military satellites scanning Earth for nuclear explosions. Recent examples include the El Paso fireball of 1997 and the Slovenian Superbolide of 2007.

Last night's fireball is on the low end of the superbolide scale. Nevertheless, it was still a beauty and likely peppered the ground with meteorites when it exploded. Sighting reports are welcomed; they could help guide the tracking and recovery of debris
http://www.spaceweather.com/

[BSB]

Are you a stargazer, plane?

[Plane]

Are you a stargazer, plane?

A little.

About a week ago the moon was in juxtaposition with two planets.

To think this event is great , one needs to be informed enough to know what is happening , but not so used to the sky to consider it ordinary.

I am about there.

[Plane]

ISS TOOLBAG: The ISS Toolbag is still orbiting Earth. Just this morning, Eddie Irizarry saw it gliding over Puerto Rico. "Using 9x63 binoculars, I saw the famous object passing between the stars Muphrid and Arcturus in Bootes," reports Irizarry. "It was about 7th to 7.5th magnitude. Slight variations in brightness were evident, suggesting the Toolbag is tumbling as it orbits our planet." Readers, you can catch the Toolbag, too. Check the Simple Satellite Tracker for viewing times.http://www.spaceweather.com/