Michael Cash wrote:

> Using info from http://www.heavens-above.com earlier this evening I
> was able to take my family out into the parking lot to watch the
> International Space Station go whizzing by. It was a very impressive
> sight, both in speed and brightness. (Half an hour before we saw it,
> it had been over the western coast of Africa).

Was that around six o'clock and sort of an orange-red-white, brighter 
than all of the surrounding stars, off toward downtown Kashima (maybe 
south or south-southeast of Japan) ... if you're looking from just south 
of Oarai?  If so, I saw it in the sky and was wondering what it was.

> Venus and Mars are both at points in their orbits which bring them
> very near the Earth and are showing up bright and clear.

I found them without having to resort to the web site.  It's about the 
only thing I remember from studying for my astronomy merit badge back 
when Lyndon Johnson was still president.

> The heavens-above site will let you enter your location and then
> creates sky charts and satellite viewing maps centered on your city,
> with times in your local time. Very neat.

Nice site.  I've been trying to get my daughter interested in using the 
telescope we've had for more years than I care to remember.  She's 
pretty good at recognizing constellations on a PC screen, but this might 
do more to get her outside.

CL