Lost toolbag

[archosman]

Any takers here? :)


Astronaut's Lost Toolbag Visible From Earth


http://www.foxnews.com/images/470402/0_61_lost_toolbag.jpg (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,457344,00.html#) Kevin Fetter/YouTube

The lost toolbag passing over Brockville, Ontario, as captured by amateur astronomer Kevin Fetter.












http://www.foxnews.com/images/470402/0_41_lost_toolbag.jpg (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,457344,00.html#)
http://www.foxnews.com/images/470402/0_43_sts126_eva1_bag3.jpg (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,457344,00.html#)
http://www.foxnews.com/images/470402/0_42_sts126_eva1_bag4.jpg (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,457344,00.html#)


Remember that expensive bag of tools a spacewalking astronaut let go of last week? Now you can see it from Earth — if you've got a telescope.

Amateur astronomer Kevin Fetter caught video of the orbiting object from his Brockville, Ontario backyard Saturday, and posted it online for all to see.


"I don't have any [professional] background in astronomy," Fetter admitted to The Age of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. "Just one night I looked up at the night sky and got hooked on astronomy. It was many years later that I started satellite observing."


Fetter used an orbital calculator on the astronomy Web site SpaceWeather.com (http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=23&month=11&year=2008) to determine exactly when the lost bag, estimated to cost about $100,000 once the specialized tools are factored in, would be passing overhead.


"Depending on the size of the object and how much light its surface reflects will determine if I can see it, and get it on video," he told The Age.
Astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper accidentally released the tether holding the bag to the International Space Station during the current space shuttle mission's first spacewalk on Nov. 18.


It contained two grease guns that were specially fitted to lubricate joints on the space station's huge solar-panel arrays, both of which need to turn to face the sun in order for the orbiting habitat to attain full power.


"Oh, great," Stefanyshyn-Piper said as it drifted away into space.
Experts say the bag and its contents will eventually harmlessly burn up in the Earth's atmosphere, though it poses a risk to the space station and other orbiting satellites until then.



http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,457344,00.html

[thekid24]

ahh i wouldnt sweat it if i were the astronauts....Sears will replace it no questions asked

[Madweasel]

Heavens-above.com now has the toolbag on their list, which is a better site because it shows for the observer's position the track against the stars, making it much easier to find. I was just too late for tonight's pass, though a few minutes later I did see the shuttle Endeavor and the ISS, now separated and clearly travelling together through the sky - very cool. I'm hoping to get a look at the toolbag before it re-enters.