ISS to make night passes over North American sky

William Atkins
Friday, 11 April 2008 20:51

Science - Space

On Thursday, April 10, 2008, the International Space Station begins a week-long series of passes across the evening sky of Canada and the United States. As new modules are added with each new space shuttle mission, it gets easier to see the orbiting laboratory fly over in the night sky.


NASA describes the observance of the space station by humans on Earth as “bright as Venus.” On the first night of the observance, some ISS-watchers could even see it through thin clouds in the sky.

To find out when you can watch the International Space Station go over your local area in Canada and the United States, please go to the newly redesigned Simple Satellite Tracker at the Spaceweather.com website.

All you need to do is to enter your zip code and indicate whether you are located in the United States or Canada.

From my vantage point in central Illinois (United States), I will be able to see a “very bright” ISS go over beginning at 8:30:55 p.m. Central Daylight Time (CDT) and continue on across the West-North-West sky until 8:33:16 CDT, for a viewing time of a little over 3.5 minutes.

The ISS will appear as a -3 magnitude star for me. At its brightness, the planet Venus appears as a -4.6 magnitude star.

As the ISS becomes larger in size, it will also become easier to see as it flies across the sky. For photographs of the different configurations of the space station during its construction phases, please go to NASA Human Spaceflight’s website “International Space Station.”

Don’t miss out on your chance to see the ISS glide across your local night sky!

To find out then the ISS speeds across your local sky in regions outside of North America, please go to the Heaven’s Above website.

You can also download a software file developed by NASA called J-Pass that allows the tracking of satellites across the sky.

NASA SkyWatch is also available from NASA to observe satellites traveling overhead.