7 March 2008

STS-123 Mission Milestones.

Flight Days begin at 0400 EDT and end at 0359 EDT on the following calendar day.

The countdown will begin at 0300 EST Saturday, 8Mar08.

Launch is scheduled for 11Mar08 at 0228 EDT. The Shuttle will pass NYC eight minutes later at MECO at about 0236 EDT.

Docking takes place at 23:37 EDT on 12Mar08. There are two ISS visible passes between launch and docking but they are short and low altitude passes,

EVAs begin as follows

EVA 1	2128 EDT 13Mar08
EVA 2	2028 EDT 15Mar08
EVA 3	1928 EDT 17Mar08
EVA 4	1823 EDT 19Mar08
EVA 5	1728 EDT 22Mar08

Undocking is scheduled for 1955 EDT on 24Mar08.

The deprbit burn is scheduled for 1933 EDT on 26Mar08 which would result in a KSC landing at 2035 EDT. There is a poor ISS visible pass between the deorbit burn and landing but the shuttle is not likely to be anywhere near the ISS by then. ESA will be launching its Jules Verne automated docking supply vesel on its maiden voyage to the ISS on 9Mar08. It will go into a parking orbit somewhere and dock with ISS after the Shuttle leaves. Russia will be launching a Progress capsuel with the next ISS crew on 8Apr08.

5 March 2008

Observing Location	McDonalds, Westchester Ave near Benedict Ave, Bronx, NY
Observational Period	1800-1830 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Scattered Clouds Temperature 45°F Wind Light Breeze gusting to 21 MPH Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 29.86" Hg Rising Feels Like Cold Wind Chill 41°F (37°F) The wind made if feel much colder than it was and it was difficult controlling my hobble with it pushing on my back. Transparency Fair Seeing &ngsp;
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

1751 EST	Sunset Civil twilight begins
1818 EST	Civil Twilight ends Nautical Twilight begins

Target Iridium 31 Flare Constellation Ori Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080305.1822 EST Comments I underestimated the height and it seemed to be late so I almost missed it. It was very bright -- much closer to a Mag -8 than a Mag -5 -- and gold colored.   Heavens Above CalSky Alt. 53° 53.2° Az. 175° S 173.6 S Mag. -8 -4.7 I saw it passing to the left of Bellatrix and falling vertically through or just to the right of Alnilam where I lost it. Star Alt. Az, Bellatrix 54° 21’ 178° 36’ Alnilam 46° 41’ 174° 46’ This confirms my suspicion that bothHeavens Above and CalSky report their azimuth in Degrees True measured from True North. This is strange since they both give the time as Civil Time for the location specified and not as either UT or the time for the time zone of the location. If the pages were being written for astronomers I would expect times to be expressed in UT and azimuths from south. If they are written for the lay public it would be appropriate to write them in Civil Time and Degrees Magnetic. Converting Degrees True to Degrees Magnetic is no big deal. Planitarium does it on the fly based on the date and the coordinates of the location selected. Most “civilians” wouldn’t know what to do with a UT or azimuth or even that there is a difference between True North and Magnetic North and how to convert between them. So now I know that I have to add 14° to whatever azimuths I get from either application when I am using my bearing compass.

1850 EST	Nautical Twilight ends Astronomical Twilight begins
1922 EST	Astronomical Twilight ends

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Armed with the information that STS-123 Flight Days don’t equate to calendar days and with the actual dates and times of Docking and Undocking, I reevaluated the ISS visual passes. On the front end of the mission there are two passes where the craft will chase one another across the sky, but neither of them is favorable. The first is a one second pass early on the morning of 12Mar08 and the other is the next pass that morning and ISS is only visible for 1m 44s.

	Start	Max. Alt.	End
Time	05:09:34 EDT Docking -18:18:34	05:09:34 EDT	05:09:34 EDT
Alt.	10°	10°	10°
Alz.	N	N	N
Mag.	0.8
	Start	Max. Alt.	End
Time	06:43:31 EDT Docking -16:44:31	06:44:38 EDT	06:45:45 EDT
Alt.	10°	12°	10°
Alz.	NNW	N	NNE
Mag.	0.5

On the tail end of the mission there is one pass that is a little more favorable but the craft separate quickly after undocking so probably won’t be close together by then. That pass is on the evening of 25Mar08 and is visible for 2m 04s.

	Start	Max. Alt.	End
Time	20:02:38 EDT Undocking +24:07:42	20:04:26 EDT	20:04:42 EDT
Alt.	10°	16°	15°
Alz.	S	SE	SE
Mag.	-0.5

All of these passes are low on the horizon.

It is possible that the ISS still needs to go through an orbit boost maneuver and that the times of visible passes will change as a result of it.

4 March 2008

I did some more research on the upcoming flight of Endeavour. It appears that there will not be any visible passes of the ISS between the Shuttle’s launch and its docking.

The launch window runs from 11Mar08 through 23Mar08. But because DoD is going to launch a satellite on Mar08 and the requirement for 48 hours space between launches there is a blackout of the launch window from 13Mar08 through 16Mar08.

There are two types of windows that alternate days. The short, 10-minute window results in a docking on the third mission day while if they launch in the normal 10-minute window on the next day they dock on mission day 3 while if they go into the 10-minute extension of that window they have to dock on mission day 4.

	Launch Window
	Opens EDT	In Plane* EDT	Closes EDT	Docks Flight Day
11Mar08	0223	0228	0233	3
12Mar08	0157	0202	0210	3/4
13Mar08+	0134	0139	0144	3
14Mar08+	0109	0114	0122	3/4
15Mar08+	0046	0051	0056	3
16Mar08+	0020	0025	0034	3/4
17Mar08	2358	0003	0003	3
17Mar08	2332	2337	2342	3
18Mar08	2310	2315	2320	3/4
19Mar08	2244	2241	2254	3
20Mar08	2221	2221	2231	3/4
21Mar08	2156	2201	2206	3
22Mar08	2133	2138	2143	4
23Mar08	2107	2112	2117	3
In Plane* - optimal launch time 1#Mar08+ - launch standdown due to DoD launch

There are five spacewalks scheduled for this mission. That sounds like a record to me but that isn't something I have been tracking.

The mission schedule for this mission is a little screwy because the crew day starts in the middle of the night so mission days do not correspond to calendar days.

3 March 2008

Observing Location	McGraw Ave @ Virginia Ave, Bronx, NY
Observational Period	0515-0530 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 38°F Wind Calm Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.32" Hg Rising Feels Like Cold I think it was clear since I was seeing stars over most of the sky, but I didn’t see the kite stars of Boo so there was probably some haze up there. Transparency Good Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

0456 EST	Astronomical Twilight begins

Target ISS Visible Pass Constellation Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080303.0526 EST Comments The ISS appeared to be elongated along its axis of travel like a hyphen that was dimmer in the center than at the extents. first sighted 0526 EST applus Arcturus 0527:45 EST dimming 0529:0# EST lost behind buildings 0529:55 EST Start Time 0526:22 EST 0526:25 EST Alt. 18° 18.8° Az. SW 234.8° SW Mag.   -2.9 Max. Alt. Time 0528:21 EST 0528:21 EST Alt. 86° 86.2  Az. NW 323.6° NW Mag. -2.5 -4.5 applus Arcturus Time   0527:49.95 EST Ends Time 0531:15 EST 0533:15 EST Alt. 10° horizon Az. NE 53.9° NE Mag.   1.4

0527 EST	Astronomical Twilight ends Nautical Twilight begins
0559 EST	Nautical Twilight ends Civil Twilight begins
0627 EST	Civil Twilight ends Sunrise

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It appears that Endeavour is still on track for its scheduled very early Tuesday morning, 11Mar08, launch. I checked the NSAS web sight and can't find a Press Kit there yet but I did come up with a few mission briefing graphics that are interesting.

This is the current configuration of the ISS.

Here is a view of Endeavour's payload bay. It appears that we are going to be flying a lot of empty space. Most of the payload's mass appears to be towards the aft end of the payload bay.

One of the mission objectives will be the installation of the Dextre grappling fixture on the end of the ISS' Canadarm.

This is the target configuration for the end of the mission. Mission objectives are indicated by arrows.

2 March 2008

Observing Location	In front of the house
Observational Period	1818-1840 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 41°F Wind Calm Humidity Low Barometric Pressure 30.30" Hg Rising Feels Like Cold Transparency Good Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

1747 EST	Sunset Civil Twilight begins
1815 EST	Civil Twilight ends Nautical twilight begins

Target Cosmos 2082 Rocket ? Constellation Ori Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080302.1835 EST Comments While watching for the Iridium Flare I spotted a satellite moving horizontally across the sky, right to left, coming out of Orion. Checking with CalSky it appears that what I was seeing was the Cosmos 2082 rocket cacing. Start Time 1824 EST Alt. horizon Az. 324.3° NW Mag. 6.5 Max. Alt. Time 1835 EST Alt. 61.8° Az. 109.1° ESE Mag. 3.3 Ends Time 1843 EST Alt. horizon Az. 27.4° NNE Mag. 6.2

Target Iridium 90 Flare Constellation Ori Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080302.1837 EST Comments This Iridium is listed in CalSky as #91. It doesn’t matter much if it is 90 or 91 since they all look the same. The satellite appeared to be falling out of the sky past Betelgeuse. It was bright golden-white. It brightened quickly and faded a little more slowly but was a faster flare than I would have expected for a sky as dark as this was, probably on the order of 3-5 seconds. Alt. 52° Az. 166.0° SSE Mag. -8

1848 EST	Nautical Twilight ends Astronomical Twilight begins
1919 EST	Astronomical Twilight ends

1 March 2008

March

Named for the Roman god of War, Mars. This was the time of year to resume military campaigns that had been interrupted by winter.

Martius, month of the god Mavors or Mars. First month of the Roman calendar.

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Following up on the story I reported yesterday about the delay of a DoD launch due to the presence on orbit of debris from the destruction by the Nave of the failed USA 193 spy satellite, I checked for possible impact in upcoming Shuttle missions. Spaceflight Now reported yesterday that NASA has held a Flight REadiness Review and cleared STS-123, Shuttle Endeavour, for launch at 0228 EST on 11Mar08. It appears that the launch of Discovery on the subsequent mission, STS-124, has been pushed back a day to 25May08. Tne March launch should be a good opportunity to see the Shuttle fly by NCY, assuming good weather.

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Here is a link to a page that has some information on the USA 193 debris orbits.

29 February 2008

Observing Location	Bedroom Window
Observational Period	0545-0530 EST
Atmospheric Conditions	Cloud Cover Clear Temperature 19°F Wind Light Breeze Humidity Moderate Barometric Pressure 30.53" Hg Rising Feels Like Toasty in my bed next to the radiator Wind Chill 8°F Transparency Good Seeing
Instruments	Naked-eye - Charlie
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway

0500 EST	Astronomical Twilight begins
0532 EST	Astronomical Twilight ends Nautical Twilignt begins

Target ISS Visible Pass Constellation Category Satellite Time yyyymmdd.hhmm 20080229.0549 EST Comments Not Seen I am looking at the tail end of the pass hoping to spot it passing through gaps in the surrounding buildings. The sky is starting to get bright and according to Cal Sky the ISS is only Mag 1 by now.     Heavens-Above CalSky Start Time 0549 EST 0550 EST Alt. 10° horizon Az. SSW 209.0° SSW Mag.   -0.8 Max. Alt. Time 0552 EST 0554 EST Alt. 25° 26.9° Az. SE 135.8° SE Mag. -0.1 -1.8 Ends Time 0554 EST 0559 EST Alt. 10° horizon Az. ENE 62.9° ENE Mag.   1.7 I am finding a disparity between the data given in Heavens Above and that in CalSky. Start and end of the pass can be attributed to Heavens Above reporting it at 10° Alt while CalSky reports it at the horizon. But they both should show the same time and location for culmination.

0604 EST	Nautical Twilight ends Civil Twilight begins
0631 EST	Civil Twilight ends Sunrise

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The military is delaying the launch of a satellite because of all the debris that is still in orbit after they destroyed USA 193 before reentry.

Space.com

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Sunspots Observed

The Sun has finally developed some spots so I have done a bit of observing when the weather was conducive to that activity.

Observing Hours for the Year 2008

	Day			Night			Total
	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg	Hours	Days	Avg
Jan	2.25	9	0.25	2.75	5	0.55	5.00	13	0.38
Feb	3.25	9	0.36	8.25	7	1.18	11.25	12	0.94
TOTAL	5.50	18	0.31	11.00	12	0.92	16.25	25	0.65