How to spot the space station in the sky

The word from Houston is that NASA handler have decide on April 29th for space shuttle Endeavour ’s final launch .

That ’s timed so that the artificial satellite can easy give chase down the International Space Station and deliver its billion - dollar shipment , theAlpha Magnetic Spectrometer .

Not coincidentally , these birdie launches also coincide with time period when the ISS repeatedly passes over North America in the hours just after sunset . So not only do you get a chance to see the mammoth , football - field of battle - sizing assembly sailplaning across the evening sky , but you also might glimpse the shuttle in hot orbital pursuit .

Hisenseqd6

I ’m always a short surprised when I run into skywatchers who ’ve never seen the ISS slide by overhead , because it ’s slam - dunk soft to spot – if you know where and when to look . Due to its relatively low-pitched orbit , 360 kilometres up , the spacecraft circles Earth about 16 times each daylight . We can see it whenever we ’re in darkness on the ground and the spacecraft is still in sunlight – which means the hours just after sunset or just before sunrise . Sighting predictionsfor your locating arejust a suction stop away .

Whenever the outer space station cruises overhead , it ’s generally trip west to east , the direction of its movement around Earth . However , depending on the specific pass , it could be going northwest to southeastern United States , southwest to east , and so forth . Even though it ’s zipping along at 8 kilometres per second , you ’ll see that it take a few minutes to cross the sky . Look for a bright steady beacon that ’s glide along a smooth , baronial path – not a quick ostentation like a meteor .

When the first place module reached orbit way back in 1998 , I pinged some of my NASA contacts to see if anyone had work out how bright the space station would appear once all the piece came together . Surprisingly , no one knew . But now that it ’s whole tricked out ( pending Endeavour ’s final increase ) , the solvent seems to be about order of magnitude -3.8 . That outshines every nighttime star and every planet except Venus .

Dellinspiron2in1

So sometime in the next duo of workweek , head outside and beckon to the station ’s six cosmonauts and astronauts as they coast overhead . The ISS is now so vast – the size of a football game field , including the ending zones – that you’re able to detect its shape through a decent duo of binoculars .

Courtesy ofSky & Telescopemagazine . Image : NASA

This post originally seem onNew Scientist .

Bark Watch