*****THE CACHE IS NOT AT THE POSTED COORDINATES!*****
As geocachers, we all love space-based technologies. We use satellites every day to find our little treasures. In fact, this cache was placed on the 23rd anniversary of civilian high-accuracy GPS! Today, however, we are looking for a different man-made satellite, the International Space Station!
I'm going to teach you how to spot the ISS! To unlock the coordinates to the cache, you must complete the simple puzzle at the bottom of this page using facts about the ISS. My original intention was to require proof that you spotted the ISS in order to log this cache, but there is no way of requiring this, so instead, please post pictures of the International Space Station, your viewing party, or your viewing story/experience with your log! I cannot require it, but I can request it!
What is the ISS? The International Space Station is a joint project from space agencies around the world. The project involves five space agencies; the United States' NASA, Russia's Roscosmos, Japan's JAXA, Europe's ESA, and Canada's CSA, with 10 other countries contributing to the creation, operation, and maintenance of the ISS. The first launch of an ISS module was on November 20th, 1998, and was expanded upon for many years to follow. The ISS has been humanities foothold in space, as it has been continuously occupied since October 31st, 2000! As of publishing of this cache, 266 individuals from 20 different counties have visited the ISS, maintaining humanities presence in low Earth orbit for over 22 years!
How do we spot the ISS? The ISS orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, but it is only visible from a given point on Earth when it orbits near that point at the correct time. The orbital path, and the subsequent timing of those orbits, may not line up for Southern California for days or even weeks at a time, so the ISS is not always available for spotting, though the cache is available 24/7/365.
Follow the steps below to calculate when you will have visible pass opportunities.
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Step 1. Heavens Above
A. Find the tracker. Visit www.heavens-above.com and click on "ISS" under "Satellites" and "10-day predictions for satellites of special interest".
B. Set your location. In the top right corner, click on "location" and follow the steps to set your desired viewing location. This just needs to be your general area while attempting to spot the ISS, so it could be your backyard or nearby park. It could even be another town/state if you are completing this portion of the cache before a planned visit to the area to find the physical cache. At the bottom of this page, I have a link for Heavens Above with the location set to the coordinates of the Mystery Cache for easy access for those in the North County area.
C. Check for available passes in the near future. Save your location and return to the 10-day prediction page. If there are visible passes within the next 10 days, you should see them listed by date.
Step 2. Determining a quality pass to view
A. Understanding brightness: Brightness, or "magnitude", is the apparent brightness of objects in the night sky. The LOWER the magnitude, the BRIGHTER the object. For reference, Sirius, the brightest star in our night sky, has a magnitude of -1.46 while Venus can be even brighter at times, at -4.14! Notice these are negative numbers. Lower negative numbers are brighter!
B. Find a nice bright pass! Check your Heavens Above visible passes list for low magnitude passes. -1.0 will be visible just fine, but try to find lower! The brightest passes for the ISS are magnitude -3.8. I highly recommend finding a pass that comes close to this, as it is truly dazzling when the ISS lights up significantly brighter than any star!
C. Evening or dawn? While the ISS is sometimes visible in the middle of the night, the brightest passes occur just after sunset or just before sunrise. This is due to the fact that the observer is in the shadow of the Earth while the ISS above the observer, is fully lit by the sun. Check the "start" time to see when the passes begin. If the passes don't work for your schedule, you may have to re-check in coming weeks to find passes that will work for you.
Step 3. Getting ready for your ISS pass!
A. Find a nice open area. Large open areas, such as fields, hill tops, or coastlines (perhaps a beach near the cache marker!) are ideal for viewing the ISS as it flies overhead.
B. Get your cameras ready! I would love to see photographic proof in your logs to show me that you spotted the ISS! With a decently bright pass, most smartphones should be able to snap pictures of the ISS. To prove it isn't a planet or star, two pictures a few seconds apart or a long exposure will show the motion of the ISS. Either way, I'll be able to tell the object is moving and is therefore the ISS passing by. If, however, you don't want to try to snap pictures of the ISS during the pass (or your equipment is not capable of that low-light photography), I'd still love to see your viewing party and/or hear the story of your experience in spotting the ISS!
Step 4. Time to spot the ISS!
A. Look in the right direction. Reference your Heavens Above visible pass listing you are trying to see. Check the Start "Az." (Azimuth, or heading). Look in that general direction. Note the azimuth of "highest point" as well. Some passes may follow a trajectory that remains North of you, or it may pass nearly directly overhead. Check the Start and Highest point "Alt" (altitude) to help give you an idea of how "up" you may have to look to spot it. An altitude of 70, for example, will mean you'd have to look up 70 degrees to spot it when it passes by at that point. Be sure to have a clear view of the sky in the direction of the pass, especially for lower altitude passes.
B. Scan the sky! Keep a sharp eye in the general direction of where the pass is supposed to start, but scan the entire sky. For example, it may be more North or South than you expect, or higher than you expect, when first spotted. Don't give up! Keep scanning and searching all the way from the "Start" time to the "End" time.
C. More eyes are better! Bring your family and friends along even if they aren't geocachers. With a bright pass, I promise anyone will enjoy seeing it if they haven't before. Plus, more eyes to spot it!
D. Don't forget your pictures!!!
Step 5. Find and log the cache!
A. Find and log the cache! Do that whole Geocaching thing and find the cache! Please include any and all stories and pictures you may have taken of your adventure of spotting the International Space Station!
B. Those darn clouds! Sometimes a good ISS pass sighting is ruined by mother nature. If this happens to you, I highly recommend you try again. Feel free to find and log the cache, but also come back to upload photos or a story of spotting the ISS when you are finally able to actually spot it!
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Fun Facts to read and contemplate while you wait for your ISS fly-by.
The ISS orbits at approximately 250 miles above the Earth at an orbital velocity of 17,500 miles per hour. That's nearly 5 miles PER SECOND, and over 6 times faster than a bullet from a rifle!
The ISS orbits Earth once every 90 minutes. That means they get a sunrise or sunset every 45 minutes! In 24 hours, they orbit the Earth 16 times.
As of this cache being posted, there are 7 crew members on board the ISS as part of Expedition 68, comprised of 5 men and 2 women from 4 different countries (USA, Russia, Japan, and Kazakhstan), including 3 from California! NASA astronaut Frank Rubio from Los Angeles, NASA astronaut Nicole Mann from Petaluma, and NASA astronaut Josh Cassada from right here in San Diego! Wave hello from their home state as they fly by!
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson holds the U.S. record for time spent in space at 665 days.
The solar array which powers the ISS is 239 feet across, utilizing 8 solar arrays and providing 75 to 90 kilowatts of power.
The ISS is 356 feet long. Including the stretched out solar panels, it's roughly the size of a football field, although the habitable/pressurized module is only 218 feet long and is fairly narrow.
The space station has been continuously occupied since November 2000.
The station’s orbital path takes it over 90 percent of the Earth’s population, with astronauts taking millions of images of the planet below.
As of April 2022, 251 astronauts, cosmonauts, and space tourists from 20 different nations have visited the space station, many of them multiple times.
To get the final location coordinates, use the hints below and facts above:
(coordinate updater available in browser, checker below)
N 33 A.BCD W 117 E.F
A. Number of solar arrays used to power the ISS.
B. First digit of the pressurized module length.
C. First digit of the percentage of Earth's population which could potentially look up and see the ISS (given the right conditions and timing).
D. Number of orbits the ISS completes in 24 hours divided by 2.
E. Number different nations which have had representatives visit the ISS.
F. Overall length of ISS minus 13.
You can validate your puzzle solution with
certitude.
Links:
SoCal Heavens Above ISS 10-day prediction: Heavens Above North County
ISS facts and figures collected from this site: NASA ISS Facts and Figures
ISS facts and figures collected from: ISS Wikipedia page
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Upcoming high quality passes for Carlsbad as of posting this cache (there are other passes available, these are just some of my recommended ones as they are the brightest):
Date Mag Start time
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MUGGLES MUGGLES MUGGLES! Please use stealth when retrieving and replacing this cache. This is a high muggle area. Good times to access this cache coincidently align with good times to SPOT THE ISS; early morning and evening/night. There will likely be a LOT of people in the cache area during the middle of the day and it will be difficult to make the find and replace the cache inconspicuously. Thank you for your stealth!
Cache contains log only, bring your own pen!
Physical cache easter egg, the container is an old laser pointer housing, a tool which one might use when star gazing or trying to spot the ISS!
I hope you enjoyed learning about and spotting the ISS. I love astronomy and love to share the excitement of space exploration with anyone who will listen!