Perfect ISS Pass

  I watched the clouds all day yesterday because I knew there was going to be a great pass of the International Space Station just after 9 pm. As the day wore on the clouds became broken and there were even patches of clear sky. So it looked good.

 The schedule was this:

9:17 pm - 10° to my SW
9:21 pm - 77° to my SE
9:22 pm - 30° to my ENE

 I was standing beside the garden with my phone on the tripod running video as I first saw the moving point of light. Here's the beginning of the pass:

Start: 9:18 pm - 09-08-26

 In the video you can hear both the many autumn insects chirping and also static from my ham HT. I was listening to the downlink from the amateur radio repeater on the ISS:

 I began hearing hams using the repeater just as the ISS was nearly overhead. I could also hear an astronaut tell each one "I've got you on the log". It's amazing to copy a signal on a handheld device from 250 miles away but the ISS is, of course, line of sight.

 Here's a shot I took at about 9:21 when the ISS was as close as it would get. It's the bottom bright "star" in the picture. That's the top of the maple by our kitchen window.

 Obviously clouds were still of some concern but I was able to see the entire pass. The ISS passed into the Earth's shadow at 9:22 pm and "blinked out".

 Here's a view of the pass itself:

I have lots of other passes noted on this blog. Just search for "ISS" in the search box at the upper left.