Unidentified light in the sky ...

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Well I think I just identified it ...

It's been a clear night - the first since I moved into our house in Wainuiomata, so I lay out on the hammock with a pair of binoculars trying to adjust to what (being the Southern Hemisphere) is a very alien sky.

Then noticed one of the stars was moving very quickly. Having lived under the Heathrow flightpath I know the kind of nav lights on a plane (it didn't have them even looking at it with binoculars) and if something is very high up, it doesn't move that fast in the sky. This moved quickly.

Looking it up online. And no - not for a moment did I suspect aliens. I mean aliens over New Zealand? Unless they're obessed with cattle mutilation

Anyway looking it up I think it was the International Space Station - certainly looking at the direction it was flying it is a good match.

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata...ing/index.html

Cool. Although even with binoculars it still looks like a light in the sky, no detail.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Looked it up better tonight - going to look for it at 8pm if the skies stay clear.

http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realdat...ity=Wellington

Kind of ironic I've tried several times to do look for it in the UK, it's kind of funny that I end up "seeing it by accident".

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Hmmm - my wife saw another one of these things - but this time checked on here and the ISS isn't due over our house for a few hours - and the tracker puts it on the other side of the world. Curious - is the space shuttle up at the moment?