Potential Sightings of the Inspiration4 SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft for the Twin Cities

[petemn2004]

Heavens-Above.com is showing that there are a couple of potential sighting opportunities of the Inspiration4 spacecraft (private SpaceX Dragon mission with 4 astronauts) for the Twin Cities tonight Thursday Sept 16 and Friday Sept 17.

Thursday:
16 Sep Mag 2.7
Start 20:43:38 10° SW
Highest 20:47:50 57° SE
End 20:50:10 25° ENE

A better pass on Friday, almost straight overhead:
17 Sep Mag 2.6
Start 20:46:02 10° SW
Highest 20:50:19 82° SSE
End 20:53:00 23° ENE visible

Subject to change. Check Heavens-Above.com for the latest.

Mark

[bsk1947]

Thanks! Missed yesterday due to clouds. Will check it out today...

[petemn2004]

Looked up the current prediction for the pass that peaks at 8:50 PM tonight. Only changed by 3 seconds from yesterdays prediction.

If you click on the date for a given pass listed in the matrix (in this case for today 17 Sep) it should show you the pass that the satellite will take in the night sky. It should pass very close to the star Sadr which is the middle of the cross of the constellation Cygnus. It could be a couple of minutes fast or slow of the predicted time or if they changed the orbit for landing opportunities it could drastically change.
[attachment=0]Inspiration_4_MSP_SkyMap_2021_09_17.png

Mark

[petemn2004]

Clouds interfered as the predicted time approached and I did not see the spacecraft. The moon was very bright.

Did anyone see it?


Mark

[MarkC]

I saw it from Roseville. Looked just like the ISS going over.

Mark

[LCain]

I saw it last night from CGO. Thank you for the information.

[merle]

I saw it from Roseville. Looked just like the ISS going over.

Mark

I went out to take a look for this too and THOUGHT I had seen Inspiration, when in fact it was the ISS. The two spacecraft appeared in nearly the exact location within a couple minutes (predicted) of each other. The telltale sign was how bright the objects were. While the ISS was -4 mag, Inspiration was .6 mag., MUCH dimmer.

Inspiration, predicted to pass before the ISS and much dimmer, I missed it.

Attached ISS pass.

Merle

[MarkC]

That makes sense. I saw a very dim satellite only visible with averted vision just before the bright pass. That must have been Inspiration4

[SEmert]

I watched for it from my back yard, and I "think" I got a glimpse or two of the Inspiration4 Dragon capsule a couple minutes ahead of the ISS. The ISS was brilliant, and I think i overestimated the 0.4 magnitude brightness of the capsule and was looking for something brighter when I saw the satellite go over.

In any event, this was a great accomplishment for SpaceX and I hope they make their donation goal of $200M for St. Jude's Hospital.

[merle]

I saw a very dim satellite only visible with averted vision just before the bright pass. That must have been Inspiration4

That's it....

[petemn2004]

I saw what must have been two StarLink satellites in tandem about 5 minutes before the predicted time. Then I spotted a very bright satellite in the same general vicinity of the predicted Inspirtion4 pass. I realized it must be the ISS, being much too bright. I did see the first occupied Dragon trailing the ISS before docking. It was much fainter than the ISS. The matrix I posted at the start of this topic listed magnitude 2.7, which I think is reasonable given my earlier sighting and it was higher than the ISS.

The bright moon sure dims other objects in the sky.

The Inspiration4 flight went higher than any other human occupied spacecraft since Apollo17. 100 miles higher than the ISS and higher than Hubble.

With the launch of the Inspiration4 mission there was for a brief period of time 14 people in Earth orbit, a new record. This surpasses 13 in orbit that was achieved 3 times before.

Soon after the Inspiratio4 launch the Chinese de-orbited the 3 taikonauts that stayed on orbit 3 months, a Chinese record.

Mark