*video above – International Space Station live feed*
Look up in the sky!
Our friend Carol reminded us about the International Space Station flyover, which will take place tonight!
In Contra Costa County, you’ll be able to see it beginning at 7:54 p.m. – for four minutes – appearing in the northwest, and disappearing in the East/South/East). Maximum height will be 61 degrees (90 degrees is straight up).
By the time it leaves our view after four minutes, it will have already traveled about 1,200-miles.
It will be traveling 17,500 miles per hour.
Thanks again Carol for always giving us a heads-up to look up!
23 comments
Very cool, thanks for the heads up, will check it out with my kids.
hope the smoke / haze is gone…
You can get text messages when it’s available for view here:
https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/signup.cfm
I recommend Sky Guide mobile app. I think it’s 2.99 but well worth it. Besides tracking everything in the sky, it tracks ISS and many more. Even comets, guides you to them. I got this app because none of them show the Milky Way, this one did and much more. I stopped using NASA’s text messages.
Also Weather Bug now tracks ISS as well.
Smoke shouldn’t obscure the view tonight and it’s already more dark than not by that time.
Mars and the Moon have been doing the tango last few nights as well.
Kool-aid ✔
Popcorn ✔
Binoculars ✔
There is an ISS pass between 7:00 and 8:00 every night this week through Saturday night. There are 2 tomorrow night between 7:00 and 9:00. I’m an amateur astronomer and use a website called ClearOutside for astronomy weather. It shows ISS passes and shows the time and direction.
Thank you 👍
The next viewing over Concord will be Thursday evening.. as NASA explains they send out text message reminders only if/when the ISS will reach a maximum height of at least 40 degrees. See Spotthestation.com for viewing coordinates and to sign up for text reminders.
Thank you. That was super cool
Just saw it. Started about 60 degrees then went overhead. Very cool. Crystal clear and very obviously the space station. 😊
That was awesome! Thanks!
Just saw the space station passing over us just as promised. Street lights to the NW made it difficult to see early and smoke obscured it before it sank below the horizon. Thanks for the heads up.
Not sure where you were but most viewing was clear as a bell with no distortions or obscurity. Maybe next time you’ll find a better spot and enjoy it more, Chuckie.
@chuckie – The reason the ISS seemed to disappear before it got to the horizon is that it moved into Earth’s shadow and the people on board the ISS experienced Sunset. Satellites are generally only visible to the naked eye shortly before Sunrise or shortly after Sunset when we on the ground are in Earth’s shadow as the Sun is below the horizon but at the same time the air and space above us are illuminated by the Sun as it’s not below the horizon for things that are higher up.
You can see this affect with high flying jet aircraft immediately before Sunrise and after Sunset where we on the ground are still in relative darkness but the aircraft and its contrail, if it has one, are brightly lit.
Last night Sunset for us on the ground was at 6:44pm. The ISS had a Sunset at 7:59pm when it was still 37 degrees up from the horizon relative to us. Had the ISS pass been earlier in the evening, say 7:00pm, then we on the ground would have seen a horizon to horizon pass with the ISS illuminated by the Sun the entire time.
Despite the ISS and other satellites seeming to be “way out in space” most of them are “flying” at the upper edge of Earth’s atmosphere. They experience a Sunrise, daytime, Sunset, and night time on each 90 minute orbit. If a satellite is in a polar orbit that goes over the north and south poles then it could be in Sunlight 100% of the time.
Assuming we are not socked in by smoke, Thursday October 8th will be a “better” ISS pass for you. Sunset will be at 6:39 pm. The ISS will seem to rise up from the NW horizon at 7:08pm, be at maximum overhead for us at 7:11, and will disappear over the SE horizon at 7:14pm. The people on ISS won’t experience Sunset until 7:16pm. The downside is that because it’s closer to Sunset for us that the ISS will not seem quite as bright as last night though will still be very visible.
WC Resident
Good info. You are all checked out.
A couple of years ago when it came over our area I was taking to a son in San Diego and before it disappeared here he saw it coming up down there. Thought that was pretty cool.
Just watched it go over! Clear as a bell. Thank you Carol and Claycord for the heads up, it was great!!
That was a decent view. There was another satellite running from south to north that crossed paths with ISS with the two satellites seemingly overlapped for a moment. I believe it was the Meteor 1-22 rocket which was launched by Russia in 1975 and is still orbiting. Meteor 1-22 rocket orbits at nearly double the altitude as ISS and so while they appeared to intersect they were hundreds of km apart.
Neato
G’nite Folks
That was great. Four minutes of something nice in 2020. I’ll take it.
Thank you very much Carol.
Kids and I went to a nearby park, that was great!
Saw it last night. Thought it would whizz by faster.
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