Rusty's Blog

If you haven’t heard of it by now, you could probably be accused of living under a rock. Possibly in an effort to save yourself from space junk.

A little over a week ago, an astronaut at the space station was working with a tool bag, and reportedly the grease gun in the bag popped. The report sounds a bit suspect to me, but for whatever reason the tool bag in question drifted out of reach of the astronaut, and ended up floating away.

Ever since then I have been seeing reports of people on the ground spotting the bag in orbit. Personally I suspect that it is at the top of the list of orbiting objects being searched for on ‘http://www.heavens-above.com/’ or it will be soon. Actually I suspect that most people who go out looking for it will miss seeing it entirely.

Why? Well, to be honest most people who go out looking for the tool bag in orbit won’t know what to look for. Reeportedly the object is showing up as a magnitude 8 object. For people who are thinking that means it must be pretty bright, a minor bit of explanation. Astronomical objects are described as appearing to have a brightness relative to a theoretical magnatude -1 star. For a detailed explanation, see http://www.stargazing.net/David/constel/magnitude.html

The relationship of each level of magnitude is the base of the natural logorithm. e. For unenhanced or ‘normal’ vision, the brightness of stars in the sky in a rural area on a clear night is from Sirius at -1 down to magnatude 6 stars. The dimmest of the stars normally seen in the constelation ursa minor is 5.4.

This means that if you live in the city, even if you have really good eyes, and a solid understanding of the type of flight path that the tool bag should have, it is very unlikely that you will see a magnitude 8 object.

If you know what to look for, exactly where to be looking, and a good pair of binoculars, it’s possible that you could see the tool bag.

I’ll be honest though. I think there are a lot of other things out there in the night sky that are just as interesting to look for, and a whole lot easier to see. Watch for Iridium satelites. These are satelites that were put into polar orbits that just happen to have features that do an absolutely wonderful job of reflecting the sun as they fly overhead in orbit.

The Space Shuttle and the International Space Station are both highly visiable when their orbit is over head during the appropriate times of the evening and morning.

And at various times during the year, the sky puts on some absolutely wonderful fireworks shows worth spending hours watching. Meteor showers, and after a CME Aurora events are both often spectacular.

But if you really do want to see the Tool Bag, I would suggest doing a bit of research. At some point, probably in about 2 years, the bag will re-enter the atmosphere. I haven’t heard a lot of information one way or the other, but I would suspect that it will mostly burn up on re-entry, and very likely will put on a brief, but bright, show. If you are in the right place, and alert at the right time, I strongly suspect that it will be very visiable.

Promotion

I don’t often do this, but here goes. As I’ve noted a few times in the past, I am involved with the CONvergence science fiction and fantasy convention held over the first full weekend of July. I’m also a fan of Jonathan Coltan. If you don’t know who he is, I’d suggest digging yourself out from that rock I mentioned earlier.

In any case, there is an open request out there for Jonathan Coltan to be ‘demanded’ as an appearance at CONvergence. See <a href=”http://eventful.com/performers/P0-001-000132714-3/demands”>the eventful.com page</a>

I’m not getting any money for the link. I don’t work for Eventful, and while I do a lot of work for CONvergence, it is part of a non-profit. If I get anything out of this promotion it’s the opportunity to see John perform or appear at the CONvention, and even that’s not gauranteed for me. (Potential wor schedule concerns are cropping up.)

I would appreciate it if you would add your voice to the demand requests. But if you’re not interested, that’s fine too.

Have a great Thanksgiving day, and a wonderful weekend.