According to NASA the following sightings of the International Space Station (ISS) are possible from London, UK between Saturday 24 April and Thursday 6 May 2010:

Local date/time	Duration (mins)	Max elevation (deg)	Approach (deg-dir)	Departure (deg-dir)
Sat Apr 24/03:08 AM	1	45	45 above E	17 above E
Sat Apr 24/04:40 AM	4	40	15 above W	17 above SE
Sun Apr 25/03:32 AM	2	70	65 above SW	17 above ESE
Sun Apr 25/05:06 AM	3	20	15 above WSW	15 above S
Mon Apr 26/03:58 AM	2	38	36 above SW	17 above SE
Tue Apr 27/04:23 AM	1	19	19 above SW	16 above S
Thu Apr 29/09:42 PM	2	23	16 above S	22 above SE
Fri Apr 30/10:06 PM	3	46	15 above SW	27 above E
Sat May 01/08:57 PM	3	24	16 above SSW	16 above ESE
Sat May 01/10:31 PM	3	77	16 above WSW	44 above E
Sun May 02/09:21 PM	4	48	15 above SW	15 above E
Sun May 02/10:57 PM	2	84	16 above W	80 above ENE
Mon May 03/09:47 PM	4	79	16 above WSW	17 above E
Mon May 03/11:22 PM	1	41	16 above W	41 above W
Tue May 04/10:12 PM	4	84	16 above W	17 above E
Tue May 04/11:47 PM	< 1	19	16 above W	19 above W
Wed May 05/09:02 PM	4	81	16 above WSW	17 above E
Wed May 05/10:37 PM	3	86	16 above W	45 above ESE

Data from NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information page (London)

See also possible sightings from all UK locations or choose your country at NASA’s Sighting Opportunities page.

The Royal Observatory (ROG) has won an international award for its Solar Stormwatch website, www.solarstormwatch.com.

The website picked up the award in the Innovative or Experimental category at the 2010 Best of the Web Awards, presented at the international Museums and the Web conference
held in Denver, USA late last week. 

Solar Stormwatch was built in-house by the ROG’s Digital Media team working in close collaboration with The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and Galaxy Zoo
(Oxford University). It provides tools and tutorials that actively
encourage the general public to help scientists analyse data from
NASA’s STEREO mission, which was launched in 2006 to conduct 3D studies
of the Sun.

The principal aim of the website and resulting research is to help
spot and track solar storms across space and to create a user-generated
space weather forecast. Best of the Web judges commented that the
Museum’s Solar Stormwatch made ‘excellent use of crowd-sourcing to
advance scientific discovery’ and that it not only connects users,
but engages them to do something of real value.

Solar Stormwatch is the latest in the line of solar
science research projects to come out of the Royal Observatory,
stretching back to the very first Astronomer Royal John Flamsteed
(1646-1719). Flamsteed set up a solar observatory at Greenwich and his
observations were later studied by Royal Observatory employee Edward Walter
Maunder (1851-1928), who showed that there had been an exceptionally
low occurrence of sunspots between 1645 and 1715, a period now known as
the Maunder Minimum.

Museums and the Web is an annual conference usually
staged in the US and attracting over 400 delegates from 20 or more
countries. The conference is recognised across the cultural sector as
the pre-eminent forum for the discussion, debate and presentation of
the latest ideas and research from cultural institutions using the web.

The Best of the Web awards have been presented at the conference
since 1997, and are awarded in recognition of outstanding
achievement in heritage website design, research and delivery. This
year, 87 sites were nominated from a range of cultural heritage
institutions worldwide. A full listing of this year’s Best of the Web winners is available at http://conference.archimuse.com/forum/congratulations_mw2010_best_web_winners.

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Join the hunt for solar storms

8 April 2010 – The European Space Agency’s CryoSat ice mission is scheduled for launch this afternoon at 15:57 CEST (14:57 BST). Live web streaming starts approx 22 minutes earlier on the ESA website.

The CryoSat-2 satellite will be launched on a Russian Dnepr rocket from an underground silo at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Dnepr rocket will place the 700kg CryoSat-2 spacecraft into orbit 700 km above the Earth.

CryoSat-2 carries the first all-weather microwave radar altimeter, designed to determine changes in the thickness both of floating sea ice (up to several metres) and polar land ice sheets (close to 5 km thick in Antarctica). The mission will deliver data on the rate of change of the ice thickness accurate to within a centimetre.

CryoSat-2′s launch was originally scheduled for 25 February, but had to be postponed because of a problem with the fuel reserve in the launcher’s second stage.

The first CryoSat spacecraft unfortunately crashed into the Arctic Ocean and was destroyed shortly after it launched on 8 October 2005, due to an unusual launch rocket malfunction.

Update: The CryoSat-2 satellite launched successfully on schedule at 15:57 CEST and is now safely in orbit.

1 April 2010 – The scientific community is buzzing this morning with the news of the chance discovery of a possible new object in our solar system.

Pauline Mye-Legg of the Royal Observatory’s cleaning team was taking her customary glance through the famous 28-inch refracting telescope yesterday evening when she was amazed to spot a completely new object in the night sky. ‘It was quite large, dark and fuzzy, quite low on the horizon’ she reported. ‘However, when I looked again later it had gone.’

Dr Joe King, the ROG’s official Planet-finder General, said that it’s too early to confirm or deny but that amateur astronomers have a long history of making important new discoveries. He did however add that Ms Mye-Legg also has a long history of leaving cake crumbs on the 28-inch telescope lens and confusing them for new planets.

In other news today, Easter this year has officially moved from this weekend to the last Sunday in April due to a mix-up over the Metonic Cycle.

Only joking of course – happy first of April to everyone, and also a very Happy Easter this weekend!