Look Up on July 4th

Author: Tom* Comments(7)

Last year there was Deep Impact. This year there is more going on in the sky than fireworks on the 4th of July (for those of us in the States). If you aren’t going to any fireworks shows and have clear skies, read on.

Go outside about dark, just before and look for the moon. Keep watching and you will see Jupiter appear right beside it. Binoculars will only help and if you have a telescope all the better. If you have a scope and an imager well there you have a nice image in the making.

You will also be able to see the International Space Station, check Heavens Above for times it will be over you. If the Space Shuttle is launched Saturday as scheduled, and the re is last I heard a 60 percent chance it will be, you will see it attached to the ISS if you have a telescope. This is a pretty good sight anyway, and you may have seen it and not known what you were looking at. It is easily visible with the naked eye, but it will look more like a slow “falling star” that travels across the entire sky. In fact, with or without a scope, is the station going by the Moon and Jupiter pairing is something you will not see very often. It will happen between 9:40 and 9:41, so check Heavens Above to see if you will be able to view that. You can also check NASA’s Sky Watch web site for ISS times.

The video of a flyby is from amateur astronomer John Locker of Wirral UK. Some day I’d like to think I would be good enough to catch some video like that.

Image Credit: John Locker
Source: Science@NASA

7 Comments so far

  1. J.P. on June 29th, 2006

    Thanks!, Tom fer the heads up. This is why this blog is So Great! J.P.

  2. Michael A. Ireland on June 29th, 2006

    If ISS goes overhead at your location at the right time it is very easy to see because it is quite bright! It will be much much brighter still with the shuttle attached!! I’ve seen it go overhead on many occasions.

  3. Dawn on June 30th, 2006

    Thanks for the heads up. Thats why I like this site..always showing things that we were never taught in Science class at school. Keep up the great work Tom!

  4. james on June 30th, 2006

    thanks.looking forward to the show the kids will love it

  5. Carrie on June 30th, 2006

    Would someone e-mail me on the 4th to remind me to check it out, please? Thanks! :)

  6. katrice on July 1st, 2006

    I was out driving the other night and saw the crescent moon and a “dot” by it and wondered which star that was. Now I know I was looking at Jupiter!

  7. tdumont on July 1st, 2006

    Carrie, I will try to remember! :)

    Tom