LightSail came to life on Sunday afternoon and the sails are fully deployed. Sail deployment began at 3:47 p.m. EDT (19:47 UTC) off the coast of Baja California, Mexico, as the spacecraft traveled northwest to southeast. Check out the exciting moment from LightSail HQ:
If you want to get a glimpse of LightSail, you can see it with the naked eye. Best views are at dusk and at dawn, according to LightSail's blog. Mission Control Center can predict when LightSail will be over your location (the location is automatically chosen based on the location of the device you're on). If you want to find out when LightSail will be over another location, head over to N2YO, create a free account and then set your custom location.
According to The Planetary Society: "The start and end horizons are the locations LightSail should appear and disappear. Max elevation indicates how high it will get in the sky. Zero degrees is the horizon (assuming no obstructions), and 90 degrees is directly overhead.
"Look for flyovers that occur around dawn and dusk. The best time to see any spacecraft-including LightSail-is when you are standing in Earth's shadow but the spacecraft is still illuminated by sunlight.
"LightSail may be running ahead of schedule. Depending on how long it's been since we've received an orbital update from the Joint Space Operations Center, our pass predictions may be inaccurate. If you're going outside to look, consider starting a few minutes earlier than our listed times."
