Groundspeak Portal

Finally a break in the weather is forecasted for the North East for the next few days.  Heavens Above has the ISS visible in Rochester NY on January 3rd from 5:18pm to 5:23pm with a max altitude of 59 degrees.  If anyone is interested in trying to do an ISS Waymarking Game sighting let me know.

For My Location, North Chili, NY (Rochester NY)

Date	Mag	Starts	Max. Altitude	Ends
Time	Alt.	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.
02 Jan	0.3	18:30:59	10	WNW	18:33:43	41	SW	18:34:33	30	S
03 Jan	-0.9	17:18:06	10	NW	17:20:53	59	NNE	17:23:41	10	ESE
03 Jan	2.3	18:54:02	10	W	18:55:38	14	SW	18:57:12	10	SSW
04 Jan	0.4	17:40:18	10	WNW	17:43:00	43	SW	17:45:43	10	SE
05 Jan	2.5	18:03:12	10	W	18:04:53	15	SW	18:06:36	10	S

 

I am going to do a trial run tonight (Jan 2) and see if it is visible.  I have seen it once before in Philadelphia over the summer.  It was really neat.  Very bright, and very fast.  Even if you can't do the waymarking ISS game, I recomend you at least try to go out and see it.

Successful viewing on Jan 2nd.  Started out low on the western horizon and passed overhead where it eventually faded in the South over my neighbor's house.  Got some pictures, but I only did 10sec exposures so it is just a gray line in the sky, nothing fantastic.

It seems so eerie to see it, as the light is bright enough to be an airplane light, yet it emits no noise...

Yeah... it is neat isn't it.  Your experience sounds rather like mine was.

It was really interesting.  More people should try it.

BQ

I just saw your post tonight.  Hope you found someone on your track to do it with you. Plainsdrifter358, Iowa Tom, and my husband and son and I did a three-legged sighting of the ISS on the second track for the night (the one that went by you at 18:54:02).

From here it went like this:

Date	Mag	Starts	Max. Altitude	Ends
Time	Alt.	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.	Time	Alt.	Az.
03 Jan	-0.6	18:52:33	10	NW	18:55:21	67	SW	18:57:11	19	SE

It was partly cloudy here, and we were afraid that would prevent us from seeing the pass, but just before the start time, the clouds rolled by and we saw the pass from beginning to end. It was the brightest I have ever seen it. My husband even manged to get a shot of it with his new camera. My son is 17, and he was impressed enough to stay out there with us and not try to act like we were forcing him to be there!

Hello Neos2, I also saw that pass. Iowa Tom knew I was watching but I'm too close to him to claim a waymark. I had planned to get a time-exposure shot too, but a flat tire put me 30 minutes from home and the camera when the ISS passed over. I'll be posting a visit to Iowa Tom's waymark.

Was it great where you were, too?    Hey, questions for you...

What do you think about allowing groups of people to claim a visit to the waymark if they are with the person who is creating the waymark while they are viewing the event. For example, what if a group of people were together for a caching event, a star-gazing party, or some other such gathering where one of the people will be doing one leg of the waymark. The other observers can't make their own waymark, since they are too close to the person they are with. I think it's pretty obvious that they should be able to mark it as a visit. Do you agree?

And if you do think that should be allowed, then what about families or teams? For instance, my husband, son and I viewed the ISS pass together. My husband and I just happen to have both a team account and individual accounts. We logged the pass on the team account, though I typically use my individual account to log caches and waymarks and coins. Our son has gone geocaching with us before, though he hasn't logged anything at all and doesn't have his own account yet. We don't really care this time, and we are absolutely fine with using the team account for the log--- but some families might feel differently or not have the team account. I think that a family or team that logs individually and sees the pass as a group should be able to decide among themselves who will create the waymark, and let the others could log it as a visit.   How do yo feel about that? Can you see any potential for comfusion there?

Naturally I'd like to hear from others about these ideas--but I asked 8Nuts MotherGoose because they have already done a waymark on the ISS and know what is involved.

 

 

Groups of people claiming a visit to a waymark created by one individual?

I think we need to check in with Iowa Tom for his Category Owners Opinion. I was going to ask him about the possability of a Star Party /Waymarking/Geocache Event. One of the category rules state that a second person at least 296 miles away has to observe the same pass for the waymarks to be created. Other parties closer than that can then log a visit to the nearest created waymark for that pass provided that they contacted the waymark founder prior to the pass that they were also going to observe it.

IMO it should be possable to do this. The largest variable would be the unknown weather conditions for the time of the pass when setting up an Event Cache a month in advance. Getting everyone together at the event and finding rainy skies would put a "damper" on part of the Event Cache.

How's this for new visitation rules? It's a key of sorts.

_____________________

 

Visitation Rules:

 

1 You observed a *community pass (distance irrelevant) Go to 2.

1 You observed a pass that **has no waymark established. Go to 6.

 

2 You already own an ISS waymark. Go to 5

2 You do not own an ISS waymark. Go to 3

 

3 The ISS passed over your location at or above the minimum altitude requirement. Go to 4

3 The ISS passed over your location under the minimum altitude requirement. Go to 6

 

4 Feel free to make a visit to the nearest waymark established for the community pass you also observed. [[[There is no real need to contact the owner of the waymark.]]] You must list (1) the date, (2) the time of your local maximum altitude, (3) your maximum local altitude and (4) upload a Heavens-Above image of the ground track past you position. NOTE! If you have a GPSr and a digital camera, please post a photograph of your GPSr next to the printed ground track image. Take the picture at the location from where the observation was made.    

 

5 No matter what the altitude of your pass you may visit the nearest waymark made for a community pass that you also observed one or more orbits after you made your waymark. See 4 above for more details.  

 

6 Sorry but you cannot claim a visit.   

 

*Community pass: a pass that was observed by ***two or more players that were at least 293 miles (472 km) apart. This pass must be in accordance to the altitude requirements set forth in the game rules.  

**Watch for this! You may claim a visit to a waymark made for a pass that you saw but only sometime later learned was made.

***In the rules there is a provision that will allow a single player to make a waymark if the other/s were clouded out.   

_____________________

 

Should I change this? [[[There is no real need to contact the owner of the waymark.]]] I can just see 30 people writing to a busy waymark owner! 

 

Nice job on the tripple sighting.  I agree, stretch it out, go for the longest we can!  I think I will need to get together with a Canadian in order to meet the 45 degree altitude viewing requirements.  But to be honest though, I am really just more excited to see it then get a waymark.  I was able to view the 5:18pm pass in my area as the sun set and light clouds filtered in.  By the time the 6:54pm pass came that you 3 saw the horizon was obscurred for me (only 14 degree altitude).

So far with Heavens Above, my experience seems to be that the actual sighting time is a little later (maybe a minute or two) and altitude actually seems a little higher than estimated.  Both the 41 degree and 59 degree passes by my house seemed a lot more like 60 and 70 degree passes.

Had some OK photos I took, and was going to post a link here, but my firend's RoadRunner server I host them on currently seems to not be cooperating with my rival local DSL service, so I can't access it right now.

Glad we were all able to get out and see the ISS on these clear nights in the NE.