Spotting Dragon Spacecraft Saturday Night May 30

[petemn2004]

I believe the recently launched Dragon Spacecraft maybe visible from the Twin Cities tonight Saturday May 30th. It would go in the general direction of NW to SE.

Heavens-Above website is experiencing heavy traffic.

Can anyone get specific time and sky locations?

Also time and sky location of the ISS.


Thanks,

Mark

[petemn2004]

From Heavens-Above:

Crew Dragon - Visible Passes Home | Info. | Orbit | Close encounters

Search period start: 30 May 2020 00:00
Search period end: 09 June 2020 00:00
Orbit: 194 x 357 km, 51.6° (Epoch: 30 May)

Passes to include: visible only all

Click on the date to get a star chart and other pass details.

Date Brightness Start Highest point End Pass type
(mag) Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.
30 May 0.2 22:15:23 10° WNW 22:17:31 57° SSW 22:18:20 32° SSE visible

The time of the predicted pass may vary, guessing +/- 10 minutes. Or it may not been seen.

[petemn2004]

I believe the prediction that Heavens-Above calculated is incorrect.

The dragon spacecraft is in a lower orbit than the ISS and takes less time to make one orbit of the earth. It is catching up to the Space Station and should be behind it.

The ISS pass for tonight is:
30 May -3.5 22:22:56 10° WNW 22:26:15 56° SW 22:27:57 25° SE visible

The time of maximum elevation of the ISS is 10:26:15 PM. I would expect the Dragon to be behind it and reach maximum elevation after the ISS does by a few minutes.

Mark

[clayton]

I checked satflare and they have Dragon in front. However https://www.n2yo.com/?s=45623|25544 Dragon does appear behind. Guess I will be out a while.

[SEmert]

I used the Heavens Above prediction and couldn't see the Dragon capsule, but did see the ISS as predicted a few minutes later in the same path. I just assumed I couldn't see the dimmer capsule in the suburban light pollution plus 1Q Moon glare. Didn't check any other references, as I assumed Heavens Above was correct since Dragon was in a lower orbit at the time which I thought meant that it should be leading the ISS then slow as it raises to the ISS orbit.

[Ron Schmit]

I saw the Saturday night pass at 22:27. Used Heavens Above and it was spot on, but tough to see. The Dragon was much fainter than the expected 1.2, more like 4.5 mag.

[petemn2004]

We saw the Dragon spacecraft trailing behind the space station from Maple Grove along the same path that the station took. As Ron reported the Dragon was much fainter. I got photos of the Dragon with a Canon 20Da but they were not properly focused. I was able to track the Dragon until orbital sunset with binoculars.

[Almericus]

I know this is a late reply, but I captured the ISS and Crew Dragon that night. Stacked in StarStaX

20200625_000103.jpg