For three nights now I have tried to go outside and view an ISS in the evening sky. For various reasons I have been unsuccessful, mostly due to a lack of timing or fogetfulness. I am happy to say that I was finally able to get myself organized and view not one but two ISS's last evening. At 9:15pm Tuesday Sept 8, 2009 I, along with my husband, daughter, mom and dad, stood in my parents hay field and eagerly looked towards the SW portion of the sky. I was really worried I wouldn't be able to see or know what I was looking for, but when they appeared, exactly on time, we were all truly amazed. It was like seeing two stars perfectly spaced apart from each other that were moving very swiftly in an arch across the sky. They started in the SW and ended in the ENE, which took a total time of about 3 minutes, and at one point were almost directly over our heads. During their movement, they became very bright, brighter than anything I've ever seen in the night sky before. We were awestruck! As they continued to move on, their brigtness flickered off and on, I'm guessing mostly due to the cloud cover in the sky rather than the reflection from the sun. Whatever the reason, we were all dissappointed to see them go away and we are eagerly awaiting the next time we can see some again.
Photo reference:
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/ISS/ISS_S5flight.jpg
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