[denphone]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

ISS is very bright (mag -3.5) for the next few days with passes happening daily..
(Date:Mag:times:declination:bearing are Start:Highest:End)

Thanks Kymmy.

---------- Post added at 05:22 ---------- Previous post was at 05:20 ----------

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17087434

Herschel, Europe's billion-euro space observatory, has entered what is likely to be its last year of operation.

The telescope studies the formation of stars, and has taken some remarkable pictures since its launch in May 2009.

But its detectors require a constant supply of superfluid helium to keep working, and the store of this coolant has now dropped to less than 100kg.

This past week saw Herschel begin what engineers believe will be the final 365 days of its mission life.

"There's quite a bit of uncertainty in all this, of course," said Dr Paul Goldsmith from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, US.

"It could be 11 months, it could be 14 months, and we're naturally hoping for the latter. It's certainly true that we have enough observations proposed to go well past the year if the helium lasts that long," he told BBC News