The south of England was bless with a really clear night sky yesterday evening (Saturday 26 February 2011), which was just perfect for the International Space Station pass over Southampton at about 18.35 GMT. The other fortuitous feature was that Discovery was due to dock with ISS at 19.16 GMT, so there was the prospect of a unique, and never to be seen again, event of seeing the two vehicles as separate objects during the pass. As is happens, the two objects were indistinguishable with the ‘naked eye’, but just discernable with binoculars! I don’t know how close they would have been from each other 40 minutes prior to docking but from the observed evidence, they would have been less than 100 m apart.
And talking of unique views, how about this for being in right place at the right time? The link shows the view of Discovery’s launch on Thursday from a passing passenger jet. I suspect the trim of the aircraft might have been disturbed for a few minutes while everyone rushed over to one side to watch this very unusual spectacle!
http://news.discovery.com/space/extraordinary-discovery-launch-from-a-passenger-jet-110226.html
And talking of unique views, how about this for being in right place at the right time? The link shows the view of Discovery’s launch on Thursday from a passing passenger jet. I suspect the trim of the aircraft might have been disturbed for a few minutes while everyone rushed over to one side to watch this very unusual spectacle!
http://news.discovery.com/space/extraordinary-discovery-launch-from-a-passenger-jet-110226.html
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