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Friday, February 06, 2009

International Space Station

Last evening while watching the local news station (WPTV in West Palm Beach) the weather guy noted that later that evening - 6:51 PM - the International Space Station would be passing overhead in our area. After bundling up (it was cold last night!) it went out in the back yard about 6:50 and waited. After about a minute a bright 'star' appeared in the Northwest; not as bright as Venus which was in the West but brighter than other stars in the sky. Sure enough it was the Space Station as it moved fairly fast overhead and then headed toward the Southeast. It lasted about six minutes. It will be in our area again this evening but the chance of seeing it are not as good. It will be visible just above the horizon at 7:22 PM, move from Southwest to South-southwest and will be there for less than a minute.

My last "space event" was in early 1980's when I saw the Space Shuttle pass over from my driveway. Prior to that I saw launch of a number of Shuttles from both the Cape and from at home.

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