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Would you notice if something the size of a football field passed over your head at 17,700 miles per hour? Mid-southerners can see the International Space Station (ISS) fairly often, but you have to know when and where to look. Become sky savvy by visiting Heavens-Above, a Website that calculates when you can see spacecraft and satellites from your location.
To take full advantage of all their resources, visit the Website. Locate the register button, create a user name and password, and find your latitude and longitude coordinates in their database. Users don’t give out any personal information, so the site it is quite safe.
Check Heavens-Above for what will be visible in the sky over your area for the next ten days. I found the exact time and position ISS would appear in the sky for August 23.
Satellites are only visible just after sunset or just before sunrise. Heavens-Above posted that ISS should be visible in Memphis from 8:00 – 8:06 p.m.. Its maximum altitude would be 72° and its magnitude would be -2.3, brighter than the brightest planet in the sky that night. A celestial body’s magnitude is how bright it appears. The smaller the magnitude number, the brighter the object.
What time an object appears, the altitude it reaches, and its magnitude are three important factors in the object’s visibility. The closer the observation time is to sunrise or sunset, the brighter the sky will be. The object doesn’t stand out as well as it does when the sky is dark. If the object appears at a low angle in the sky the object won’t be as bright because it’s not passing directly over your location.
Sure enough, when I went out to look, there was ISS, bright and luminous against a navy blue sky at precisely the time and direction predicted. I recommend that amateur stargazers register with Heavens-Above to enjoy all the new things you can discover in the sky.
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