Skylab and Mir: Anyone Here Remember Seeing them?

NateSean · Sep 4, 2015

There's a moment in the story I'm working on where the character is sad that the light pollution in his area makes it difficult to see the stars clearly, or the International Space Station when it is in low orbit. I want to follow up the scene with a comment about seeing Skylab and Mir, but I want to know if anyone has any clear memories of seeing those two stations in their time. I'm not talking about news, or pictures in magazines, but either seeing them in low orbit or telescope.

I don't remember ever seeing Mir in low orbit, and I obviously wasn't around for Skylab, so I'd be happy to hear anyone's experiences.

Albedo · Sep 4, 2015

I watched Mir burn up in (was it?) 2002. We could see it from a park around the corner at twilight, before it crossed the Pacific for the final time.

MaryMumsy · Sep 5, 2015

No, but I remember seeing one of the Telstars back in '65 or '66. I was living on an AF base in the 'middle of nowhere' Texas. When you went to edge of the housing area there were literally miles and miles of miles and miles. No light pollution. It was pretty cool, especially back then.

MM

frimble3 · Sep 5, 2015

It was too cloudy here. Rely on it, when anything of astronomic, or even 'look up' interest occurs, the skies over Vancouver will be heavily overcast.

Deb Kinnard · Sep 6, 2015

I saw Mir and the ISS docked, from my home near Chicago where there's plenty of light pollution. They were quite clear to the naked eye, and we could tell from the shape what we looked at, so we ran in and got binoculars. Their shape was obvious and they moved in such a way that we knew it was on the type of trajectory the vehicles would be on. It was wonderful to see them, identify them immediately, and then follow them as they moved across the sky and out of view. I can't vouch for what year this was, unfortunately.

WeaselFire · Sep 6, 2015

Sure. I remember both. Mir-spotting was a common event for a while, had a party to watch it re-enter and burn up. Not that exciting. You can see most of these objects in areas with might pollution if you know where to look, especially with a telescope or binoculars.

Watched the last space shuttle flight coming in too, right over the house with the double sonic boom.

Jeff

AndyE · Sep 6, 2015

I saw Mir on holiday in Sicily in October 1999. I was staying in a camp site and (according to my diary) it was a full moon. I didn't need a telescope or binoculars. I just tracked it across the sky like a shooting star (albeit a slow one). My diary says: "I could just about see the solar panels reflecting the sunlight." It also says there was no-one on board at this point, which is rather sad!

Trebor1415 · Sep 7, 2015

As a kid I remember trying to see Skylab but even when we knew the general area to look we never could find it. It was always cloudy or there were too many lights, etc.

NateSean · Sep 8, 2015

I'm not sure who I'm more envious of right now. It's hard knowing that in retrospect, I could have probably seen Mir, especially on it's last night.

Myrealana · Sep 8, 2015

I was 8 years old when Skylab came down.

My dad was a high school science teacher, and astronomy was one of his courses. We saw Skylab several times through the small school telescopes, but we lived in a small town that already didn't produce much light pollution, and we took our telescopes up the hill behind town where we were above all the street lights.

I remember him saying we could see it with the naked eye, but I don't recall whether I actually spotted it or not.

Skylab and Mir: Anyone Here Remember Seeing them?

NateSean

Vulcan/Time Lord Hybrid

Albedo

Alex

MaryMumsy

the original blond bombshell

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

Deb Kinnard

WeaselFire

Benefactor Member

AndyE

Trebor1415

practical experience, FTW

NateSean

Vulcan/Time Lord Hybrid

Myrealana

I aim to misbehave