To see a detailed map, click in the area of the map below that
you want to magnify.
(SourceForge is being a bit balky about loading all the images- click the stop
button, then the Go or reload button till you get them all.)
To observe the transit, you should be no more than about 1/2 mile off the center track. The actual time of the transit crossing- which will take only about 0.4 seconds (don't blink!)- should be within a second or two of the predicted times; you can set your watch from nist.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Eastern/d/-5/java
Here's a way of photographing the transit without a telescope: binocularCamera.html (a similar contraption could be used for viewing the transit with your own eyes).
From the general location of I85 & 385 (34.8405 N, 82.3183 W), spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/SSapplications/Post/JavaSSOP/JavaSSOP.html shows the space station's track across the sky as a red line, below. The interval between the dots in the space station path is 10 seconds; it's traveling from upper right (northwest) to lower left (southeast):
Mercury is shown very near the Sun, and in fact it will also transit the Sun on May 7: aa.usno.navy.mil/data & aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/Merc_transit03.pdf
Weather links:
www.weather.com/outlook/recreation/detail/29302
www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/satellite/latest_US_vis.jpg
www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/satellite/latest_CLT_vis.jpg
www.rap.ucar.edu/weather/satellite/latest_MGM_vis.jpg
www.weather.com/maps/maptype/satelliteusnational/usvisiblesatellite_large.html
www.weather.com/maps/maptype/satelliteusnational/eastcentralusvisiblesatellite_large.html
For the benefit of subscribers to the ISS Transit email-alert web service (iss-transit.sourceforge.net/TransitAlertSignup.html or j2ee-consultants.com/TransitAlertSignupBody.html), I automated the plotting of the transit tracks using Microsoft Streets & Trips 2002, and Macro Express. This Zip file contains the macro in the form of exported text, transit.mex, as well as the executable form, transit.mxe, which you can place on your desktop, for example, and then click on to run (after installing Macro Express). satellite.ico is an icon that you can place into C:\Program Files\Macro Express\Icons and then associate with the macro. You can also associate a "hotkey" with the macro, such as Alt-t.
To use the macro, cut & paste the points that you want to plot from your email-alert into Notepad, Emacs, or whatever, and save them in C:\WorldView\plot.txt (or change the macro to reflect where you want to operate from). For example, I plotted the track at the top of this page using:
s 35.1 3 May 2003 12:50:18 33.8365 N, 81.8446 W 69.204 154.345 259 34.9795 N, 82.4956 W (34.9803 N, 82.4960 W) s 31.6 3 May 2003 12:50:19 33.7931 N, 81.7905 W 69.268 154.453 259 34.9332 N, 82.4364 W (34.9340 N, 82.4369 W) s 28.3 3 May 2003 12:50:20 33.7496 N, 81.7364 W 69.332 154.560 258 34.8869 N, 82.3773 W (34.8876 N, 82.3778 W) s 25.5 3 May 2003 12:50:21 33.7060 N, 81.6824 W 69.396 154.668 258 34.8405 N, 82.3183 W (34.8413 N, 82.3188 W) s 23.2 3 May 2003 12:50:22 33.6625 N, 81.6284 W 69.460 154.777 258 34.7941 N, 82.2594 W (34.7949 N, 82.2598 W) s 21.8 3 May 2003 12:50:23 33.6189 N, 81.5746 W 69.524 154.885 258 34.7477 N, 82.2005 W (34.7485 N, 82.2009 W) s 21.2 3 May 2003 12:50:24 33.5753 N, 81.5207 W 69.588 154.994 258 34.7013 N, 82.1417 W (34.7021 N, 82.1421 W) s 21.7 3 May 2003 12:50:25 33.5316 N, 81.4670 W 69.652 155.104 258 34.6548 N, 82.0830 W (34.6556 N, 82.0834 W) s 23.1 3 May 2003 12:50:26 33.4879 N, 81.4132 W 69.716 155.214 258 34.6083 N, 82.0243 W (34.6091 N, 82.0247 W) s 25.3 3 May 2003 12:50:27 33.4442 N, 81.3596 W 69.780 155.324 258 34.5618 N, 81.9657 W (34.5626 N, 81.9662 W) s 28.0 3 May 2003 12:50:28 33.4005 N, 81.3060 W 69.844 155.435 258 34.5153 N, 81.9072 W (34.5160 N, 81.9076 W) s 31.3 3 May 2003 12:50:29 33.3567 N, 81.2525 W 69.908 155.546 258 34.4687 N, 81.8488 W (34.4694 N, 81.8492 W) s 34.8 3 May 2003 12:50:30 33.3130 N, 81.1990 W 69.971 155.658 257 34.4221 N, 81.7904 W (34.4228 N, 81.7908 W)
After you've loaded up plot.txt with the points you want to plot, start Streets & Trips in full-screen mode, and zoom to your general location (say +/- 50 miles). You also should zap the S&T "legend," and drag the drawing toolbar (assuming that you've elected to display it at all) from the bottom of the program window, to where I have it (top of this page), like so:
Then run the macro!
Here's what the macro looks like in Macro Express's macro editor (I snagged this image using SnagIt, using window capture with autoscroll):
3 May 2003