I am still surprised that a lot of people don’t know that man-made satellites can be easily visible to the naked eye. Not only that, but they’re predictable. Of course!
The International Space Station, or ISS, is orbiting the Earth at the same time the Earth is spinning and orbiting the Sun. The combined motion can be quite complex, but totally predictable. And right now we’re having a "good sighting season": the orbit of the ISS is keeping it near the terminator, the division between day and night on Earth. That means it’s up high and lit by the Sun even when it is getting dark (or before sunrise) on Earth.
If you want to see it, go to Heavens-Above and register, entering your latitude and longitude. You can then see when the ISS (and lots of other objects) are visible from your location. In general, you might get a few passes during the next week. However, like I said, this is a good time to look; this is what I saw when I entered my location:
Whoa! I’ve never seen that many passes in one week! But don’t be daunted; reading the table isn’t hard. The left and right column show rise and set times for ISS and aren’t all that useful; it just gives you an idea of when to be outside looking. However, when it’s really low on the horizon it’s very far away, quite faint, and moving slowly.
The middle column tells you when it’s highest off the horizon (maximum altitude). For me, for example, tonight as I write this it will reach maximum height at 9:25:52 p.m., when it will be 46 degrees above the horizon, or about halfway from the ground to the zenith. That’s not bad, and it’ll be at a magnitude of -1.2, or pretty bright, outglowing all the stars in the sky (and even the handful of planets up right now at the same time).
The azimuth tells you what direction to face to see it: for me, it’ll rise in the west-southwest, hit max at north-northwest, and set in the northeast. If I go out tonight to watch it (unlikely; it’s pretty cloudy) I’d go out three or four minutes early so that I don’t miss it, and my eyes have a couple of minutes to adjust to the darkness. Earlier is better, so you are more dark-adapted.
Although I am no fan of the ISS, it is very pretty go see, and an amazing thing if you’ve never seen it before. You can even get pictures! If you do, post ‘em on BAUT, too.
May 23rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
My son and I were lucky enough to catch the station when the space shuttle had just undocked from it. It was a pretty cool sight, even if it was two really bright dots moving really fast across the sky. I definitely recommend trying to catch it if it happens to go overhead.
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm
It’s been awhile since I’ve observed satellites passing by, but it was really neat, I must say.
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
I’ve seen the station a few times, it is very rewarding. Mostly I’ve used the heaven’s above site to confirm a siting; as sometimes the ISS does look a bit like an air plane head light (though the motion is all satellite).
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Thanks, Phil! I’m going to check that out with my Tiny Astronomer (that’s my daughter, in case you were wondering
) Looking forward to being in northern Ontario for the Perseid shower this August and hopefully some cool pics!
May 23rd, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Thanks for the info & explanation on how to use the table!
When I was a child, I got to see the ECHO satellite. A few months ago, I wrote about it on my blog — click on my name to go to that entry. This was in rural Colorado — we’d spent many a night looking at the dark sky, but actually seeing a man-made object gliding through the sky — the term is overused, but it really was a paradigm shift.
May 23rd, 2008 at 6:47 pm
I have clouds this evening, but even the local TV weather guy mentioned seeing the ISS tonight (if clouds cleared). I have a good pass and predicted better skies tomorrow. I like being able to look up and think ‘There are people up there.’
I’ve taken a couple of pictures previously on 5 November 2007 and 20 June 2007
The ISS doesn’t move all that fast. You have time to take pictures. I use an 8-second exposure (max for my camera without a bulb release) with my camera on a tripod.
May 23rd, 2008 at 6:59 pm
When reading the listing from Heavens Above, click on the date to get a map showing the track across the sky with stars and planets. That helps visualizing where to look. Clicking on the ground path on that whole sky page may also help you.
You don’t have to register at Heavens Above. Get to the site, choose from database, choose your country, and then choose your local town. If you click on neighbors, you may be able to find something more local.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Wow, what an exciting 6 minutes! I wish I had taken a picture, but I didn’t know if my camera was sensitive enough. I think I was wrong. We got really lucky. No clouds (and very few faint stars) in the sky, and the ISS was a whopping -2.4 magnitude. It was really beautiful. Unfortunately, the data table that I have says that’s the brightest it will be for us until June
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:06 pm
See the space station.
See the space station run.
“Run, space station! Run, run, run!”
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I just got back in from having a look. It hit max altitude at 21:56 local time, at -0.4 magnitude. I have a fairly dark sky (mag 6.0 – not bad for NJ), so that sucker was bright. I thought it must be an airplane at first, as it emerged from the forest hill in my back yard. It was zooming across the sky.
It’s due tomorrow to be damn near the zenith (86 degrees altitude!) at 20:43, with a brightness of mag -2.4. The sky will be a lot brighter, though, so it might even look dimmer.
I also spotted three other satellites in the 10 minutes I was out there, all dim and slow. There were a few meteors, too, which is also typical. I’ve had nights were I’ve seen well over a dozen satellites. They’re a regular swarm up there.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:39 pm
I’ve been using Heavens-Above regularly for several years now, and occasionally show others how to spot various satellites, which always goes over well. I have several pics of passes, including one long wide-sky exposure that is due back from the lab (film, oh my yes) within the next couple of days.
Last year I had a shot at a satellite that, near as I could determine, would pass directly in front of a half-moon. I had two exposures planned, one for each half (would it show silhouetted against the bright side?), and stupidly mis-set my alarm clock, waking twenty minutes after the pass. I was mildly perturbed with myself – that’s the strongest I can put it on this blog
Anyone know of a site that details satellite passes at any time of day? I was doing solar observations a few years back during high sunspot activity, using the projection method, and during focusing actually caught an object passing across the sun’s face. The camera was sitting in the bag alongside me (mumble mutter grumble). It would be nice to capture these, and I know of one guy that got a daytime shot of the ISS, but I haven’t found a source of orbital info during daylight.
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:54 pm
I went outside about an hour ago and caught the ISS. It had a -2.1 magnitude and at its peak, it was 70 degrees altitude, so it was easy to spot.
It’s quite a sight to see.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Caught it just a couple days ago by mere chance. I had just stepped outside to get some air and it immediately caught my eye. That sucker is _bright_. I assumed is was ISS as I can’t imagine anything else up there that’s that bright.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Oh man. That was koo-ell. Brightest I’ve seen it in some time. Thanx for heads up.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:54 pm
GAAA! I just missed a -2.0 pass! There’s another pass tomorrow night that’s -1.4, but I’ll be working in a windowless room at the time. Darn it.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:04 pm
I’m really pleased that so many of you went out to see it!
And now, the irony: I missed it.
We were watching a movie. Figures. But it’s pretty cloudy here anyway. Maybe later this week.
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:32 pm
I got a great shot of it, flying over our observatory.
May 24th, 2008 at 12:14 am
There’s going to be a good chance to see the ISS where I live tonight around 8pm; I’m definitely going to take a look. Even if space funding could’ve been put to a better purpose, there’s still wonderful about being able to look at one of the lights in the sky and think, “That’s us. We put that there!”
May 24th, 2008 at 1:29 am
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0805/080512iss_dewers800.jpg has a nice pic of it.
May 24th, 2008 at 3:08 am
It really is an awesome sight, such a brilliant diamond gliding through the sky.. I managed to catch it once just before Jules Verne would dock, and as a parent I had a moment of pride when 7 year old Little Slang saw Jules Verne before I saw it
That is such a cool thing, to see other spacecraft fly in formation with the ISS. So go to heavens-above and look for passes on flightday 2 or 3 after a shuttle launch. They typically have the shuttle’s passes a single click away, when one is up there. (Next launch scheduled for May 31)
Oh, when BA says “your location”, don’t assume this is a USA only thing.. I’m in the Netherlands (and don’t speak danish ;p ) and have seen ISS many, many times. Heavens-above has a huge list of locations all over the world. And it’s not just ISS… check out the prototype space-hotels Genesis 1 and 2 too!
May 24th, 2008 at 3:52 am
I feel sorry for you, Phil! Just 50° and -1,6mag?
It goes up to 84° and -2,5mag… that’s really a wonderfull view! I must really find binoculars to enjoy it even more!
In my location in Germany it’s slightly better
May 24th, 2008 at 5:41 am
It is a very good site, Where i found more knowledge about the space.
May 24th, 2008 at 6:08 am
Hello Phil, I’m curious, what does it mean that you’re not a fan of the ISS?
May 24th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Macadamia, Phil has explained that many times. Unless I’m mistaken: basically he would prefer to see all that money go into more scientific, robotic space exploration.
May 24th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Great photos BA, really cool to nab the shuttle and space station together.
The other night, as the immortal Tweety Bird almost said “I thought I saw a satellite!” I found out (from a euro-friendlier fellow Astro blog
) that the ISS was passing over N Europe fairly often at that time. So I went out the following night and it was really great to know when and where to look. And it’s especially cool to think that there are people up in that shooting star. Although, Very Expensive Winnebago might be a more realistic description.
M.O.
May 24th, 2008 at 8:40 am
I seen it yesterday. it was just so bright… It’s hard to believe it was a -0.3 only.
May 24th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Like Susan Brown, I enjoyed the excitement of seeing Echo (II?) going over while I was a child. And defectiverobot’s point about catching ISS and the shuttle soon after undocking (or before docking, I guess) is fantastic. When I try to share my enthusiasm with my less astronomically interested friends, they usually fail to experience the excitement I feel at watching a little white dot float across the sky. But I keep telling ‘em where and when to look, hoping that someday something might click in one of them, and then, Bingo, we’ve got us another convert.
Talk it up, folks. Share the wonder. The sky is way cool. It’s a shame so many people don’t realize it, just because they’ve never bothered to look up.
May 24th, 2008 at 9:33 am
“It’s hard to believe it was a -0.3 only.”
It’s normally about 1 magnitude brighter than the magnitude predicted by Heavens-Above. They keep adding new components and Heavens-Above has not changed the “intrinsic magnitude” to keep up. And we have seen a few brief one magnitude brightenings recently.
May 24th, 2008 at 9:53 am
I saw the ISS pass by last autumn on it’s brightest pass of the year, and it was spectacular. I never imagined it would look so amazing, even with just the naked eye.
I wonder how many UFO reports happen when it passes overhead. For someone that didn’t realize what they were seeing, it might be kind of freaky.
May 24th, 2008 at 9:58 am
-1.2? Boy, is that dull.
For the past two weeks, I’ve been getting alerts for -4+ (sorry for the nasty notation. I mean -4 and brighter. 
)
Maybe it’s because I live near the equator. After they added the new panels, the brightness has shot up.
May 24th, 2008 at 10:31 am
I’d suggest http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/index.html – doesn’t require registration.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
8:42 tonight is going to perfect. 84 degrees up for six minutes right across the open part of the yard.
May 24th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
Several years ago I watched ISS and the Shuttle passing overhead just when the Shuttle had crossed the Atlantic after launch (I live in the Netherlands). Seeing both of them was a coincedence, because the Shuttle launches when the orbit of ISS passes KSC, not nescessarily when ISS itself is passing KSC overhead. This observation took a bit of preparation because I only had the prediction from NASA J-pass that ISS would fly over the Netherlands that evening. I knew the Shuttle would be launced about 20 minutes earlier, so I was wondering if Shuttle would pass accross my sky together with ISS. I found a table of how the Shuttle speeds up after launch, so I calculated how much time it would take the Shuttle to cross the Atlantic. To my surprise it would pass overhead only several minutes earlier than ISS! So that evening I sat down in front of my computer, watched the launch on NASA tv (which is always a cool experience itself), and I went outside. About 20 or 25 minutes after launch, only a few minutes earlier than I expected, I saw a bright orange dot crossing the sky. That had to be the Shuttle! A few minutes later ISS followed, which was bright white. They didn’t follow the the same track, ISS was more to the north. I was a bit puzzeled about that, but then I realised that ISS was at a much higher altitude than the Shuttle! This was so cool. First I watched the Shuttle launch on my computer, then it crossed the Atlantic in 20 minutes, and then I observed with my own eyes how it crossed my sky carrying its crew, while the ISS was flying a few hundred km higher, carrying its own crew. That was even more cool than watching ISS, Mir, and ISS for the 2nd time cross the sky on the same evening.
May 24th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Richard, heavens-above doesn’t require registration. It just makes using the site easier, but you could just bookmark the site after selecting your location to have that info ‘memorised’. (ignore this if that wasn’t the reason for your registration remark)
May 24th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
OMG …
There is NOTHING that Compares to that, My Heart is Still Pounding …
Magnitude -2.4 at 81°, it Came Right Over-Head on Newton’s Wings!
:-O
May 24th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I had a pass overhead at magnitude -2.4 at 8:40pm this evening. The sky was still blue, and we had clouds. But we did see ISS pass the zenith. I had my camera set at 8 seconds, and that image was all white. I got a couple more 2 second photos as it came out of the clouds, but they are unremarkable. Seeing the bright light through the clouds was cool. We get another low pass later tonight.
Jacco, great story about seeing the shuttle.
May 24th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I Just Saw that Low Pass you were Talking about Beth, Low and Slow and VERY Orange …
The Colour Seemed to Change When they Added The Truss a Few Years Back, it was Always Whitish Before …
So you’re in The Northeastern US, too, Right?
May 24th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
It was cloudy out tonight, and tonight was the last listing of the ISS passing over where I live…
