A Flashing Success
March 5, 2012
Flashing the International Space Station with beams of light as it passes overhead had never been successfully done - until yesterday.
It sounds deceptively easy. In an earlier post I wrote about the technical requirements. But like so many other tasks, it becomes much more involved in the execution than in the planning.
Early Sunday morning, at 01:27 GMT our time, the San Antonio Astronomical Association, an amateur astronomy group, succeeded in flashing the Space Station with a one-watt blue laser and a white spot light as we passed overhead. This took a number of engineering calculations. Projected beam diameters (assuming the propagation of a Gaussian wave for the laser) and intensity at the target had to be calculated. Tracking the space station’s path as it streaked across the sky was another challenge. I used email to communicate with Robert Reeves, one of the association’s members. Considering that it takes a day, maybe more, for a simple exchange of messages (on the space station we receive email drops two to three times a day), the whole event took weeks to plan.
I was ready with cameras for the early morning San Antonio pass and can report that it was a flashing success. Here’s one of the pictures to prove it.
Light (top center) flashed from the Lozano Observatory, about 40 miles north of San Antonio, was easily visible from the International Space Station. Click the image for a bigger view.
Other posts by this author
- A Poem for Saturday: One Planet is Not Enough
- From the Diary of a Space Zucchini: The Frontier
- From the Diary of a Space Zucchini: Preparing for Departure
- A (New) Moon is Born
- From the Diary of a Space Zucchini: Gardener's Spacesuit
- From the Diary of a Space Zucchini: Baby on Board!
- With Warm Regards
- Stray Light
- From the Diary of a Space Zucchini: Happy Sprout Day!
- From the Diary of a Space Zucchini - What Do Dragons Eat?
March 5, 2012
Robert L.
Don,
Thank you so much for your dedication and efforts to make this project a success!! I sure would like to get the same view you had of us!!
Sincerely,
Robert Lozano
www.lozanoobservatory.com
March 5, 2012
D.M.J. M.
that is amazing, truly a wonderful collaboration of STEM activities !