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Saturn? Is that a UFO--or the ISS? What's the name
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 SPY
SATELLITE: Doomed spy satellite USA
193 is still orbiting Earth and making evening flybys of US
towns and cities. Last night it passed over El Cajon, California,
"fairly bright and right on time," reports Mike
O'Leary who snapped this
picture. The US Navy plans to hit
USA 193 with an Aegis missile after space shuttle Atlantis returns
to Earth (out of harm's way) on Feb. 20th. Stay tuned for updates.
[flyby alerts] [comments]
[more images: #1,
#2]
TWO SPACESHIPS:
The streak of light in this photo is about to split in two:
"The International Space Station (ISS) and space shuttle Atlantis
flew over Nishapur, Iran, on Feb. 16th," says photographer
Saeid Aghaei. "The
docked spaceships appeared as a single streak of light through the
branches of a Khayyam grape vine."
On Monday morning, Feb. 18, at 4:26 am EST, Atlantis will undock
from the ISS, causing the streak to split. This is big news for
many sky watchers across the United States who will be able to see
Atlantis and the ISS on Monday evening as distinct points of light
gliding in tandem across the twilight sky--an unforgettable sight.
Flyby alerts are available to subscribers of Spaceweather
PHONE.
more images: from
Steve Newcomb of Oakland, MD; from
Joseph Westerberg at the Joshua Tree National Park, California;
from
Kirk Benson of Yorba Linda, California; from
Matt Ridley of Gaithersburg, Maryland; from
Ralf Vandebergh of the Netherlands;
PARALLAX:
Last week, Mila Zinkova
photographed the sun through a thick San Francisco fog. Inspecting
the photo, "I noticed that the sun's reflection in the pond
appears at the tip-top of a street light--but the actual sun in
the sky is much higher than the street light." What's going
on? Scroll down for the answer.
Atmospheric optics expert Andrew Young explains: "The answer
is parallax.
The reflection in the water shows the view as seen from a 'reflected
camera'--that is, a point that is the camera's
reflection in the water, as far below the surface as the real
camera is above it." From that point of view, the streetlight
has moved up to partially cover the sun. "These perspective
effects are always present in pictures
of reflections in water -- but not often as obvious as in Mila's
picture, which is a 'textbook example' of the effect."
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