Sky-watchers across most of the Northern Hemisphere can observe the International Space Station (ISS) make multiple flybys in the sky every day over the next week.
As long as skies stay clear through June 10 (depending on your location), the orbiting laboratory will appear as a bright white star gliding silently across the overhead sky in a matter of 2 to 5 minutes three, four and even five times from dusk til dawn.
The ISS is normally sunlit 70 percent of the time, offering observers a more modest one or two viewings a night.
However, once a year the high-flying facility’s 90-minute orbit closely parallels the day-night terminator of the Earth for a period of about a week. That allows it to bathe in near-continuous sunlight, illuminating the orbiting lab for sky-watchers between northern latitudes of 40° to 55°. That’s roughly north of Rome (or Philadelphia) to south of Moscow.
For Toronto, Canada, residents, for example, on Sunday, June 1, the ISS will make four highly visible flybys at 12:23 a.m., 03:34 a.m., 05:11 a.m., 11:31 p.m. The New York City region will get five bright flybys on June 1 at 12:23 a.m., 1:59 a.m., 3:36 a.m., 10:00 p.m., and 11:32 p.m.
The biggest spaceship ever built, the ISS is about the size of a football field and is covered with shiny metal surfaces. It also has lots of highly reflective solar panels. That makes it easily visible with the naked eye, even from light-polluted city centers.
In fact, on some flybys, when the solar panels are oriented just right, the station’s brightness can be on par with planet Venus, now shining like a beacon in the western sky after dark, the second brightest celestial object in the night sky after the moon.
Orbiting about 280 miles up and traveling 17,000 miles an hour, the manned satellite looks like a brilliant star gliding swiftly across the sky. It’s also easily discernible from a passing plane because the space outpost will shine with a white, unblinking light.
For added sport, in recent years backyard telescope users have been able to track down and photograph the orbiting laboratory, sometimes even when it is transiting in front of the moon.
— Epic Cosmos (@EpicCosmos) April 11, 2014
Larger amateur telescopes that can track the quick movement of the ISS across the sky reveal real details of the station’s modules and solar panels.
— Observing Space (@ObservingSpace) April 6, 2014
The trick to catching all this celestial action is knowing when and where to look up. In the Internet age this is made easy thanks to handy satellite prediction services, including heavens-above.com and spaceweather.com. All you have to enter is your zip or postal code, city name, or even your latitude and longitude, and a personalized viewing timetable is generated.
So grab the next clear night this week and watch the International Space Station make multiple flybys above your backyard.