Mobile phone numbers do not require any formatting, you can simply enter as a string of digits special characters like parenthesis and dashes are not required. 'The email address / mobile number you entered is not valid” - Make sure you have entered a properly formatted email or SMS address. The letters represent compass directions - N is north, WNW is west by northwest, and so on.ĭisappears represents where in the night sky the International Space Station will leave your field of view. This value, like maximum height, also is measured in degrees from the horizon. If you hold your fist at arm's length and place your fist resting on the horizon, the top will be about 10 degrees.Īppears is the location in the sky where the station will be visible first. The horizon is at zero degrees, and directly overhead is ninety degrees. It represents the height of the space station from the horizon in the night sky. Max Height is measured in degrees (also known as elevation). Visible is the maximum time period the space station is visible before crossing back below the horizon. This is the optimum viewing period as the sun reflects off the space station and contrasts against the darker sky.

All sightings will occur within a few hours before or after sunrise or sunset. Time is when the sighting opportunity will begin in your local time zone. Originally published on does all this sighting information mean? This story was updated on May 8 to include details on the student participation in the HD Earth Viewing experiment.įollow Mike Wall on Twitter and Google+. UrtheCast also aims to sell its imagery to a variety of customers, including government agencies interested in tracking resource use and private companies that want to keep tabs on their operations (and perhaps the operations of their competitors). UrtheCast released the first images from Theia last month and plans to begin streaming near-realtime views of Earth from orbit soon, bringing lots of viewers to their website.

These two cameras, which together cost $17 million, were installed by spacewalking cosmonauts in January.

One of them, known as Theia, takes pictures with a resolution of 16.5 feet (5 meters), while the other camera records video that can resolve details as small as 3 feet (1 m) across. The Vancouver-based company UrtheCast (pronounced 'Earthcast') has two HD cameras on the orbiting lab.

HDEV isn't the only Earth-imaging project aboard on the International Space Station.

Earth view from space station