Space Station Sightings

It's sweeps week for ISS (Internation Space Station) viewing. This week there are numerous opportunities to watch the Station blaze across the sky - sometimes three times in one evening. The ISS is the brightest star in the sky (well... okay... second brightest, and the ISS is not really a star, if you want to get technical - but you knew what we meant - stop being so argumentative. Wohba!) It moves fast - moving from west to east in roughly ten minutes.

The trick for knowing when to look, and where to look is NASA's J-Pass. Enter your Zip Code and J-Pass spits out a nice little graphic with everything you need to know.

Make sure you pay attention to detail so you're not standing there wondering why you don't see anything. Common mistakes include AM and PM confusion, mixing up RISE and SET directions, and accidently looking for a dimmer satellite instead of the ISS which is referred to as STATION. (Not that Top Men have ever done any of those things.)

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Previous related Wohba links:
Space Film
Station Identification
Alka Seltzer in Space
J-Track - Ring of Power
Zero-G Research