With its solar panels unfurled the International Space Station has become the third-brightest object in the nighttime sky, just behind the Moon and Jupiter. That's pretty good company! The ISS is often visible to the naked eye in the evening or before dawn, when you're in the dark and it's in a position to still be bathed in light.
NASA, the federal government's most media-savvy agency, has easy tracking tools online to make sure you know where to look for the station. Though all you're seeing is a bright speck of light you'll be impressed. I've pointed out the ISS and Space Shuttle to casual viewers a few times. It has never disappointed.
Some people just aren't satisfied with naked eye observation. With a 10-inch Newtonian telescope manually tracked using a 6-by-30 viewfinder, Ralf Vandebergh of Maastricht, Netherlands was able to photograph the International Space Station, with the Space Shuttle docked, as it passed overhead!
He is not alone. In Australia, Vincent Miu was able to photograph the shuttle as it passed overhead. The Sydney Morning Herald reports: "He used a "moderately sized" 30-centimetre telescope, replacing the eye piece with a webcam purchased for about $100. The camera, in turn, was linked to his laptop computer."
That's $100 Aussie, or around $70 USD.
It's even possible to see the International Space Station during the day as Etienne Simian of Saint Martin de Crau, France did. The smudged dot on the right is Venus. The station is in the upper left. Again, his setup modest with a webcam doing the capturing.
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March 26, 2009 11:58 AM
This is and always will be a waste of MONEY of the TAXPAYERS of the USA> Why is it so important that we explore the galaxies? If our God wanted us to be out there, He would have put us out there. Quit spending all that MONEY on foolishness and use it here at home. Unless the Americam People stand together on foolosh things like this, it'll never stop. So I guess it aint going to stop. WASTE-WASTE-WASTE. That's all the US Government does anyway!!!!!!!!!!
March 26, 2009 12:28 PM
Amen and well said. With all the waste it is no wonder the country is in the shape it is in.
March 26, 2009 4:15 PM
Jerry and Ed -
Though I too am not a proponent of manned spaceflight and also wonder about the utility of exploring interstellar space it should be noted raw research without immediate commercial application often pays off in unexpected ways. Take a Pentagon financed project under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency started 40 years ago--the Internet.
Geoff Fox
April 2, 2009 1:03 AM
I, on the other hand, respectfully disagree with the comments posted here. I am fascinated with manned space flight and I believe it is our duty as intelligent being to explore the universe to the best of our abilities. It has been pointed out often the advances in science, medicine, and thing which have made our daily lives much easier which came from the space programs of the past. There is zero-G research going on up there which cannot be done in any earth-bound laboratory. The amount of money which has been spent on all of the manned flight programs by all of the countries of the earth is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the amount spent on war, death, and destruction by those same countries. There is not nearly as much waste going on in the space program as there is going on in our own back yards, with over-packaging of goods, people upgrading their cellphones and other electronic extravagances every couple of years (or less), food discarded by stores after sitting on the shelves to within a few days of their "sell by" dates, or waste by us when we buy in bulk and then half of it goes bad because we did not eat it fast enough. I would like to see more done for the people of the earth as well, but there is not enough money going into the space program to make a difference. Cut these outrageous CEO wages and pump that money into the government coffers in the form of higher (gasp) taxes so we can pay off this crippling national debt and get back to being a country who produces instead of the next world call center.
November 11, 2009 10:11 PM
"If our God wanted us to be out there, He would have put us out there."
This kind of postulation has been around for centuries. If God wanted us to fly he would have given us wings. If God had wanted us to travel underwater he would have given us fins or gills.
Yet how much has the world benefited from planes and submarines? Or even just oxygen tanks?
God made us in His image. God is creative so we are creative. HE is the one who gave us impossible dreams! HE is the one who gave us the drive to accomplish those dreams! HE is the one who gave us the capability of achieving these dreams! Our reaching for the stars and above brings glory to God, the one capable of creating beings that are not only alive but that can dream, and capable of achieving those dreams!
And there are practical benefits as well! If we are able to create a environment even remotely like Earth not upon Earth then that has directly applicable benefit TO Earth.
A necessary thing for a space station that grows it's own food is the ability to grow highly nutritional food in a small space with very little dirt, resistant to radiation, the list can go on. The benefit to those on Earth is that we remove any conceivable technological excuse we might argue for not feeding the hungry.
Medicine would have to improve as well as medical technology for designing a self-sufficient colony far from home, that has OBVIOUS applications on the planet.
Energy efficient propulsion would have to be vastly improved for travel to other planets to become practical, again obvious benefits to Earth.
Of course there are massive stores of unused resources available for us on the moon, Mars and beyond, access to these would relieve pressures for resources on the Earth (it would inevitably lead to strife for said resources in space of course, but that's part of our sinful nature).
Were we not directed by God to be fruitful and multiply? Well we've been doing that and in the not too distant future we'll be hitting critical mass in terms of population for the planet. This can be resolved in three ways: 1, tremendous amounts of people die 2, we expand making full use of the VAST resources of the Solar system, 3 Jesus returns.
Obviously the 3rd resolution is the best, but that will happen on His time not ours, so all we can do is expand or let billions die.
Here's another practical thing. So far one of the biggest driving factors to technological advancement has been war. Manned Space exploration is perhaps one of the best peaceful pursuits that would result in the same kind of stuff without the death and destruction of people and nations.
Were we not directed to fill the earth? Why not fill the sky? It's not like God's house is on Mars and doesn't want us knocking.
This is NOT a waste, but a LONG term work to show God's grace and glory and to experience up close more of God's amazing creation, even if so few people realize it or even want it to be.
God did give us wings, we just had to learn how to fly.
God did give us fins, we just had to learn how to swim.
God did put us in space, He was just kind enough to give ground to stand on.
We learned to swim and to fly, what's wrong with flying above the sky so that we may look down and see the wondrous gift of life that he has given us, and look around and see the massiveness of the expanse he has provided us and directed us to fill, and realize that God is greater still than all we can see, hear, and do. This is not foolishness. This is not waste. This is the Lord's work.
Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
January 8, 2010 7:53 PM
"If our God wanted us to be out there, He would have put us out there."
Ya he did put us out there buddy. We're smack in the middle of it. Look up and wonder.