![]() You can remain in your front or back yards and still see the flyovers.Īre There Any Apps You Can Use to Help See the Flyovers? The flyovers on Thursday and Friday nights will be higher in the sky and brighter than on other nights this week. Pretty much anywhere the nighttime sky is visible. Where Is the Best Place to See the ISS Flyovers? The current weather forecast calls for nothing but clear skies over the next week, which means optimal viewing will be available every night the ISS is visible. Thursday, September 17 (Best Opportunity)Įlevation: 52 degrees above the horizon (basically overhead) Here's a full rundown of when and where to look: Slightly less visible flyovers will take place on Tuesday, September 15 Wednesday, September 16 and Sunday, September 20. on Thursday, September 17, and beginning at 6:44 p.m. The brightest and most prominent viewings will happen beginning at 7:31 p.m. You’ll have a total of five opportunities to catch highly visible flyovers of Arizona by the ISS. Every few weeks, some of the station’s nighttime orbits are more visible because its solar panels will reflect more sunlight than usual. Why Will the ISS Be More Visible Over Arizona This Week?Īs we said, the ISS passes over Arizona a few times each day while orbiting the Earth. Here’s everything you’ll need to know in order to do it. If you’d like to spot the station during its flyover (or wave at the astronauts inside), the good news is that you can do it from your front or back yard. ![]() “It will be bright for several minutes and then go dim and almost disappear.” “It's rather sudden and spectacular,” Haynes says. Each of these highly visible passes will last anywhere from three to eight minutes and will resemble an airplane jetting across the sky. This week, those highly visible passes will happen nightly from Tuesday, September 15, to Sunday, September 20, as the ISS reflects sunlight from its numerous solar panels before entering the Earth’s shadow. “A lot of these passes will be low to the horizon, but sometimes the station will come directly overhead and will look like a bright, first magnitude star that's moving across the sky.” “There are only a few orbits where reflects enough sunlight to be visible from a certain location,” Haynes says. The station, which is approximately 254 miles above the Earth, regularly passes over Arizona as it orbits our planet every 90 minutes, but only becomes visible at night a handful of times each month. “It's fun and always causes some ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs.’" “Whenever the International Space Station flies overhead, it's pretty spectacular,” Haynes says. The International Space Station will buzz our state during the next few nights when it makes several highly visible passes.Īnd folks like Claude Haynes of the East Valley Astronomy Club say it's a sight worth seeing, even if it only lasts for a few minutes. What you are actually seeing is the reflection of the sun off of the solar panels on the space station, which is pictured here below.Skywatchers of Arizona can catch a glimpse of the Earth’s largest man-made object in orbit this week as it glides overhead. It should look like a very bright star (brighter than any others in the sky) moving slowly through the sky. According to NASA, the space station will be around forty-seven degrees at its highest point, which is essentially directly in between the horizon and directly overhead. It will appear in the northwest sky and disappear in the same general area, so that should be an easy one to spot. According to NASA, the space station will be visible at 8:52 PM for 1 minute. Tonight (8/19/15) the ISS will be visible over the Tucson area. According to, if you hold your fist out at arm's length towards the horizon, that is about ten degrees. Ninety degrees is straight up, while any number lower than that will be between there and the horizon. It will tell you how high in the sky the station will be in degrees. The website will tell you in what part of the sky the station will appear, how long it will be visible, and in what part of the sky it will disappear. You can also sign up for free email alerts on the site. NASA has made this very easy by providing a website that simply allows you to choose the city closest to you and lists the times that the ISS will pass overhead in the coming days. In order to spot the station you will first need to know when it will be passing over your area. Although the International Space Station (ISS) will appear to cruise much faster across the sky, it is still much easier to spot when it passes, as it will appear to move around the same speed as a high flying jumbo jet. Spotting particular stars and planets can be tricky, even though they appear to move very slowly through the night sky.
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