19 November 2009

Reading more in Darwin last night I came across some information on the speed of rotation of the Earth at various longitudes and decided to graph this. I had trouble finding a data source but eventually came up with a scanned copy of Physical Geography by Arnold Guyot (© 1875) from the Maryland College Library (thank you Google). The data is somewhat out of date but it does show how the circumference changes with latitude and the oblateness of the Earth. Rotational speed was calculated by dividing the listed circumference by 24 hours.

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I am playing the coverage of the STS-129 first spacewalk in the background and there does not seem to be anywhere near the amount of minute-by-minute direction being given by NASA Mission Control that I have observed before. Most of the communications today are between the space-walkers and the astronauts in Atlantis.

I checked visible passes and there are three dual passes after separation but all of them are during daylight. The only one I would have a chance of would be the 1818 EST pass on 25Nov09 and only then if I can find Jupiter which it will be flying past at a separation of 0.638°.

Wednesday, 25Nov09
		ISS	STS-129
Appears	Time	1642:35 EST	1643:16 EST
	Alt.	horizond>	horizon
	Az.	312.6° NW	312.5 NW
	Mag.	0.2	3.2
Culminates	Time	1647:15 EST	1647:58 EST
	Alt.	24.8°	25.1°
	Az.	25.69deg; NNE	26.0° NNE
	Mag.	-3.2	-0.2
Disappears	Time	1651:28 EST	1652:09 EST
	Alt.	2.0°	2.1°
	Az.	97.0 E	97.3° E
	Mag.	-1.2	1.8
Comments	Sunset 1831 EST

Wednesday , 25Nov09
		ISS	STS-129
Appears	Time	1817:39 EST	1818:22 EST
	Alt.	horizon	horizon
	Az.	299.3° WNW	299.2° WNW
	Mag.	1.0	4.0
Max. Alt.	Time	1822:24 EST	1823:08 EST
	Alt.	34.1°	33.6°
	Az.	222.7° SW	222.8° SW
	Mag.	-2.6	0.5
Disappears	Time	1822:54 EST	1823:37 EST
	Alt.	31.3°	31.1°
	Az.	198.1° SSW	199.2° SSW
	Mag.	-2.8	0.3
Comments	Sunset 1831 EST

Thursday, 26Nov09
		ISS	STS-129
Appears	Time	1705:19 EST	1706:28 EST
	Alt.	horizon	horizon
	Az.	307.9° NW	307.7°NW
	Mag.	0.4	3.4
Max. Alt.	Time	1710:12 EST	1711:32 EST
	Alt.	64.3°	66.3°
	Az.	34.5° NE	34.7° NE
	Mag.	-4.5	-1.5
Disappears	Time	1714:38 EST	1715:10 EST
	Alt.	2.0°	2.2°
	Az.	120.5° ESE	121.1° ESE
	Mag.	-1.1	1.9
Comments	Sunset: 1831 EST