[SGVLUG] OT: ISS, Shuttle and ATV visible tonight

[Claude Felizardo]

Now's your chance to show off to your coworkers, neighbors, friends,
family, SO, ...

There's a triple flyby of ISS, Shuttle, and the new European
cargo carrier "Jules Verne" (aka "ATV") that will be visible
over Pasadena tonight. The Shuttle Endeavour undocked from the ISS
yesterday, so now it is following slightly behind ISS across the
sky. The Jules Verne leads the two of them by a few minutes. The
Shuttle is scheduled to land tomorrow so the trio should only be
visible together tonight, while ISS&ATV have visible evening
passes over LA for the next few days.

All three will be passing from SSW -> SE -> ENE,
with max alt of 53 deg. ISS is mag -2.3 so should be
very easy to spot, Shuttle ~-1.3.

Start looking at about 8 pm to the left of where the sun set an hour before.
Peak altitude will be in the south east.  These behave very
differently from airplanes.
They'll look like very bright moving stars.  If it blinks, shows a red
light, or stays close
to the horizon, it's an airplane, not a satellite.

Times (PDT) are for Pasadena, but should be pretty close for
all of the LA area.

ATV: rise 20:01:09, max 20:03:53, entering shadow 20:05:30.
ISS: rise 20:05:31, max 20:08:18, shadow 20:09:46.
Shuttle: rise 20:05:51, max 20:08:39, shadow 20:10:07.

For more predicts, check out www.heavens-above.com

Linux related software - none of which I have tried but maybe someone
can and report:

http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Science-and-Engineering/Astronomy/IridiumFlares-4811.shtml
http://www.linux2000.com/tracking.html
http://www.satscape.co.uk/
http://www.qsl.net/kd2bd/predict.html