Whoo! Just saw ISS AND HTV-5 pass overhead!

[GeneCash]

It's been really rainy and cloudy, so I thought I was going to miss it, but it cleared just in time tonight.

I'm so excited! I've watched ISS passes for a couple years now, since I discovered http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/view.cfm?country=United_States&region=Florida&city=Orlando and because it's so exceptionally bright, like an unblinking airplane, that you just can't miss it. I use "DroidSat" on my phone to help me look in the right spot.

So tonight HTV-5 is my first sighting of something that wasn't ISS. It was extremely dim, and I only saw it because it was exactly trailing about 10 seconds behind ISS. I would have completely missed it, otherwise. It was like a really dim moving star.

It's so weird to see actual orbital mechanics in action like that. Thinking "those are two spacecraft in matched orbits, about to dock soon..." and it's actually true is just a bit of a gobsmacker.

[RainDreamer]

Wow lucky. Did you take any pictures ?

[lajoswinkler]

Did you see them apparently separate, and then come close again?