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Int'l Space Station to pass in front of NZ moon
International Space Station to pass in front of the moon
Tomorrow morning Wednesday [7 August 2007] at 06:23 the International Space Station will be seen to pass in front of the moon for some areas in the southeast of the North Island. The best sites to see this are likely to be Upper Hutt, Wainuiomata, Eastbourne, Whiteman's Valley and Stokes Valley or the Southern Wairarapa. Some locations close to this area will see the station as passing very close to the moon.
The station should be visible as a light in the dawn sky appearing on the northwest horizon around 6:20, visibility at that point depending on how many hills are obscuring the view of the horizon for the observer, at the locations listed above it will then move across in front of the moon where it may be possible with binoculars or a telescope to see a shadow of the station, and then proceed to drop over the horizon to the East South East. The pass across the moon is only for about 1 second, more or less depending on location. There may be slight variations in where the transit across the moon is visible because of the constant slight changes in orbit which are normal for any satellite.
Because of the rapid movement of the craft a telescope is useful only for observing directly at the moon, (and hopefully some photography!), binoculars are useful though not necessary to see the station for the rest of the pass, but in view of the dawn sky at that time and the better view of the station are certainly recommended and will be valuable as the station crosses the moon.
Further details of the pass can be obtained using http://www.heavens-above.com or for the more technically minded http://www.calsky.com A tracker can also be found at
http://www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/index.html
Robert
Holdsworth
Wainuiomata
Scoop
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