 Satellite will light up night skies this weekend
Satellite will light up night skies this weekend March 5, 2010
Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite is the brightest satellite visible this week. The International Space Station is not visible and there are no Iridium flares this week.
Launched in 1997 from Tanegashima, Japan, the TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall. It is still in operation providing measurements of rainfall.
You can see TRMM at 7:30 tonight, rising very slowly in the west-southwest. In the first two minutes it only rises to 10 degrees altitude (5 degrees/minute). But then it rises 60 more degrees during the next three minutes (20 degrees/minute).
When the satellite is first seen it is actually very distant, farther than the horizon. As it rises it is also growing closer. It passes more rapidly overhead than near the horizon, much as a jet plane does.
By 7:35 p.m. TRMM will be passing Mintaka, in Orion's Belt.
A minute and a half later TRMM disappears about half way between Mars and Regulus, the brightest star in Leo.
The Hubble Space Telescope can be seen at 5:58 a.m. Saturday, appearing in Corvus as the Hubble leaves Earth's shadow. Flying north of the Moon three and a half minutes later, the Hubble will not be quite as bright as the TRMM.
Venus can be clearly seen low in the west at 7 p.m. in the early evening twilight above the lurking sun. The view of Venus will only improve during March, as Venus appears higher each night.
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