Louie

Sorry for the shaky pics - went out without the tripod. I have been on the email notification for the International Space Station sightings - they let you know when it will be visible in your area. Generally it is only there for 3-4 minutes! But for me, it has been cloudy every day since I signed up, so I haven't been able to see it. Until today! It looked a bit cloudy, and I could hear rain falling, but there were clear patches, so I got up (6:36am) and looked. Boy, is it fast! It makes the transit from west to east in just a few minutes, as you can tell by the trail in the photos. Above is west, where it was rising. The longest trail is the ISS, and the shorter ones are stars - their trails are due to camera shake. The exposure was several seconds, so you can see how much it moved.

This is looking east, and it appeared to be further away, and probably going a bit more horizontally, thus the shorter trail, as this photo's exposure was actually longer than the first one. I will have to get better prepared with the tripod, and zoom in a bit, too for the next viewing!

Check out the website and sign up for your area!  http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/