Friday, June 25, 2010

Great Time to See the International Space Station

The next few days have an unusually large number of passes of the International Space Station. Every now and again, its orbit lines up with Earth's terminator (the line between day and night). When this happens, every pass of the ISS is visible because it is always in sunlight! Usually, you get one pass per night, maybe two if you are really lucky. Some places are getting up to five passes a night!

For beginners, go to Heavens Above to find when the ISS will be visible. You can find your location from the database, select it by clicking on a map or typing in your GPS coordinates. You can then click the ISS link to see when it is visible. Remember that lower numbers mean a brighter pass (a -3 pass is very bright, a -1 pass is not as bright but still impressive).

The ISS will appear as a very steady light moving across the sky. Be sure to sync your watch to the official time before you go out. Heavens Above gives you the direction to look and the time. Enjoy!

Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.

7 comments:

  1. There is a short entry on my blog about a lunar eclipse happening tonight, but the Moon sets before most of the action happens in Racine. If you are somewhere near the west coast or better yet, vacationing in Hawaii, you will have a better view!

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  2. Thank you! I'll see when it passes for where I am.
    Last time I saw it it was amazing!

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  3. We saw it last night. So bright!

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  4. I can't get that link ( Heavens above)to change location.

    HELP!!

    I'm in Neshkoro WI. zip is 54960

    Limited internet access here. :(

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  5. For those who are unfamiliar with the website hale is referring to... I'm fairly certain the best viewing time for us is 10:38. (look west) It should go out of sight at 10:44 in the northeastern sky. DA, the same times show for you.

    I'll probably drop off to sleep at about 10:35, knowing me!

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  6. DA

    Try www.space.com. There is a link to seeing the space station. It's on the left and that will take you to the link that has the place where you can key in where you live, etc.
    I ended up at www11.jsc.nasa.gov

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