29. November 2009 by beckster.

Made a trip down to the White Sands Missile Range over the weekend.

The Space History Museum in Alamogordo was one of my stops and I noticed the above scene from one of the upper floors of the parking lot down below.

The parking symbols especially make me smile.

Turtles on the left….really slow.

Rocket on the right…really fast!

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25. November 2009 by beckster.

at the beginning of the pass, Atlantis and the ISS appeared closer than they really were.  This shot shows them traveling through the handle of the Big Dipper which is sinking into the horizon.

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25. November 2009 by beckster.

Here the duo fly into Perseus.  The brighter lower streak was left behind by the international space station, while the bluer fainter streak was left by Atlantis.

The bright star Alpha Persei is at the upper right.

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24. November 2009 by beckster.

Since we don’t have that many Shuttle missions left, I took advantage of seeing Atlantis and the ISS pass 90 minutes later Tuesday evening..

The  second pass took them upward from the horizon in the north-northwest toward Hercules.  M13 is the fuzzy blob between the two bright stars above the track of ISS and Atlantis.

Short and sweet!

The path left behind by the ISS and Atlantis is a bit jaggy due to compression.  They were NOT doing anything weird in the sky, this is ONLY an artifact.

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24. November 2009 by beckster.

Atlantis and the ISS fly near Capella in this image.

The pair are just hours away from undocking which occurs Wednesday at 3:53 a.m. central time.

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