More Nerdy Neat Stuff

I'm Here To Let You Know...


I think that I've mentioned here in the past that I'm currently "Telescopeless."

You know...living without Telescope.



I'm really embarrased to admit it, but I only currently have a couple of pairs of Binoculars...but no telescope, because two of them burned up when my house burned down; and some slack jawed moron broke into my Suburban about that same time and stole my sweet little portable Telescope.

I guess that it was stolen because it was stored in a vinyl case that looked like it had CD's or something inside that an imbecile could appreciate. (They probably threw it in a ditch when they found out that the Pawn Shop would only give them ten dollars for it because people that go to Pawn shops are only looking for gold colored "Bling" or used power tools and TV's--telescopes aren't generally high on the hit parade at pawn shops.)

Any way, I've been reduced the past few years to running around with a camera and binoculars looking to enhance things that can easily be seen by the naked eye, and one of the coolest but yet under observed things out there these days in my opinion is the International Space Station (ISS).

Did you know that in spite of the fits and starts and recent problems with things like computers and solar panels, the the ISS is the THIRD BRIGHTEST OBJECT IN THE SKY?

It's number three behind the Sun and the Moon.



Further, right now, with the Space Shuttle attached it's even brighter, and coming up on Monday morning here on the east coast the duo of spaceships is going to make a spectacular early morning pass over the southeastern US.

I can hardly wait--I've been planning this adventure for a week now.

Weather permitting, I'm going to toss on some sweat pants and a jacket and peddle over to the marsh causeway about 5:49 AM EST and watch the four minute transit across the sky.

You can go here to the space station tracking website to check future sighting events for your own area of the country or world.

Being the nice guy that I am, as a customer service I've taken the liberty to point out where my friends and known readers can go look if they're inclined to rise early and go outside to take a gander:

For my old friend and college roommate Rusty up in western South Carolina, things start about 5:50 AM and last for five minutes as it sweeps overhead to a maximum elevation of 54 degrees.

For my Buddy Roy over on the Northwest Florida Gulf Coast, you can go here and find out that it will fly out of the southwest sky at 4:49 EST and spend 4 minutes making an arc up to 60 degrees overhead before it disappears on the Northeast horizon.


For my Mom over in Alabama, the info's here and just like for Roy it's E-A-R-L-Y.

Finally, I'm happy to tell Pat's family that they can wait until Tuesday morning and sleep until about 6:14 AM up in Western Pennsylvania and still run outside on their deck to take a gander at the goings on. As a bonus, in addition to getting to sleep later than we can down here on our little island, they also have the longest transit time--up to an angle of 66 degrees and a five minute transit period.


Now aren't you happy that I'm paying attention to stuff like this so you don't have to?



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