Astronomy - ISS Eclipses Jupiter on May 13th
For those of you who are interested, tomorrow night at just after 9:30 the International Space Station will pass in front or very near Jupiter.
It'll be an easy event to spot, just go outside at 9:30 and look straight up; Jupiter will be the brightest "star" directly overhead.
Sometime between 9:30 & 9:38, the ISS will pass near or directly in front of Jupiter. It will also appear to be a point of light, but moving about as fast as a passenger jet (crossing the sky in about 5 minutes).
The actual path of the eclipse is only 50 meters wide, I personally will only see a close pass.
For more info, check out this link:
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2004/12may_issjupiter.htm?list155268
posted by Rothar at 5:56 PM
1 Comments:
Did anyone else watch this?
It was kinda cool. I was standing outside my swank pad, just outside NE Philly. The light pollution is terrible but Jupiter, Venus, and a few stars were easily visible.
At about 9:34 I saw a bright "star" move across the sky, going south to north. It was about as bright as Jupiter, and yes moving about as fast as a commercial airliner. It passed within a few inches of Jupiter (the 50 meter "eclipse path" passed well west of Philadelphia), then moved to the north and eventually dipped below the treeline.
While not as cool as the Leonid Meteor Storm from a couple of years ago, it was still pretty cool getting my first real time look at the ISS.
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