One of my favorite things to show in the night sky is actually man-made: the International Space Station (ISS). Usually when I tell a group that we’ll be looking at the station, they’re not very interested. I mean, who hasn’t seen a satellite pass over head? But, things sure change once we’re outside, and the station appears out of nowhere and sometimes shines brighter than any star. It becomes the highlight of the night!
It’s easy to figure out when and where you can see the ISS – just head on over to their tracking website. On the left hand side, choose your country, region, and city, and it will generate a list of the observable times over the next week or so. If you’re unsure of the directions, there is a help page.
It’s even more fun to say that there are astronauts living up there right now, doing all sorts of wonderful science from biology, to atmospheric physics, to engineering!
If the weather is decent in your area, try it out this week and let me know how it goes!
I really like that there are people “out there” that are gaining experience on “working in space”. I have had a look at the tracking website, and the times this week for Guildford (I think it is the closest site to Woking, England) are really early in the morning. Special effort will be required. Disappointed Smile. Is it worth checking other weeks to see if there will be any sitings before midnight?
I’ve seen it shoot over a few times in the last couple of months, once with the Space Shuttle docked, and a Canadian astronuat on board. Get a buzz every time. Got a fantastic long look at it over Banff about a month ago.
Bronwen – hmm, you don’t want to wake up at 4am to have a peak? :) I saw one with a time of 7am – not too bad – but that was last Saturday! The ISS orbits every 90 minutes, so I figure it should be viewable by you at a decent time at some point!
Darren – it’s a very cool feeling, isn’t it? – To know that there are people up there on that bright dot looking down at us.
I’ve only caught it once – it was so much brighter and faster than any of us had expected! A big group of us were sitting in a friend’s garden in the countryside, and raised our glasses in a big loud happy toast to the two Canadian astronauts on board.
That is cool- I’ll definitely be looking for this, thanks Alyssa!
Cool – 6.28 on Saturday morning was the best option (4.30 am Sunday definitely worse). I’ll see how I feel Saturday morning, but no guarantees :)
I saw it only once, way back in around 2002 when it only had one set of solar panels. It was still impressively bright even then. Now it has four sets of panels it must be an awesome sight.
Cath – definitely sounds like a reason to celebrate to me!
Sabbi – you’re welcome! I hope you can find it at a decent time.
Anna – 6:28am isn’t too bad…you can always just go back to bed :)
Matt – I saw it a couple months ago. The sky was still fairly bright, but it was still an incredible sight!
Agreed, it’s quite wonderful. Karen James does a good job of flagging interesting ISS news on Twitter (kejames) and recently pointed out this gorgeous composite photo taken on October 14th.
Heather – love those photos! Thanks for sharing.