Author Archives: liam

The International Space Station visible to Southern California in the evening for next few days

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The International Space Station The International Space Station will be a special treat for all of us in Southern California over the next several days. We will have some truly spectacular “fly-overs” for some of the brightest passes theoretically possible (the brightness is determined by how the space station – and particularly their football-pitch sized solar panels – happen to be aligned with the sun).

For those of you who may be new to viewing it the ISS will be visible as one of the brightest (mostly the brightest) star-like object in the sky as it passes approx 200 miles overhead at over 17000 mph. The table below gives a lot of information about each visible pass including when and where to look.  The lower the Mag number the brighter the ISS will be.  So for example the pass on Wednesday Feb 27 starting at approx 6:22pm will be one of the brighter ones.

Be sure to wave to the SIX astronauts who are calling the ISS home right now.

Click on the date for each pass for further detail.

Date
Bright 		Start Highest point End Pass type
[Mag] Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.
26 Feb -2.5 19:12:29 10° WNW 19:15:44 49° SW 19:16:47 34° S Visible
27 Feb -3.3 18:21:46 10° NW 18:25:07 76° NE 18:28:27 10° SE Visible
28 Feb -0.4 19:08:36 10° W 19:10:46 16° SW 19:12:55 10° SSW Visible
01 Mar -1.4 18:17:13 10° WNW 18:20:14 32° SW 18:23:16 10° SSE Visible

All of the predictions above provided by Heavens-Above.com where you can get your own predictions for this and many other neat things to see in the sky above you.

The International Space Station – visible to Southern California in the evening for next few days

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The International Space Station The International Space Station will be a special treat for all of us in Southern California over the next several days. We will have some truly spectacular “fly-overs” for some of the brightest passes theoretically possible (the brightness is determined by how the station – and particularly their football-pitch sized solar panels – happen to be aligned with the sun).

For those of you who may be new to viewing it the ISS will be visible as one of the brightest (mostly the brightest) star-like object in the sky as it passes approx 200 miles overhead at over 17000 mph. The table below gives a lot of information about each visible pass including when and where to look.  The lower the Mag number the brighter the ISS will be.  So for example the pass on Saturday Jun 23 at approx 10:04pm will be one of the brighter ones. A nice Saturday night treat for us all!

Click on the date for each pass for further detail.

Date Brightness Start Highest point End
(mag) Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.
23 Jun -3.1 22:04:33 10° NW 22:07:39 61° NNE 22:07:39 61° NNE
24 Jun -1.9 21:11:05 10° NNW 21:13:56 28° NE 21:15:56 16° E
24 Jun -0.6 22:47:44 10° W 22:48:29 14° W 22:48:29 14° W
25 Jun -2.8 21:53:28 10° WNW 21:56:34 45° SW 21:56:49 44° SSW
26 Jun -3.3 20:59:39 10° NW 21:02:51 72° NE 21:05:12 17° SE
27 Jun -1.2 21:43:01 10° W 21:45:10 17° SW 21:46:13 15° SSW
28 Jun -2.3 20:48:35 10° WNW 20:51:36 38° SW 20:54:36 10° SSE
30 Jun -0.7 20:38:16 10° W 20:40:11 15° SW 20:42:04 10° SSW

All of the predictions above provided by Heavens-Above.com where you can get your own predictions for this and many other neat things to see in the sky above you.

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View the crescent Moon, Venus, Jupiter and The Pleiades tonight in the West.

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The Moon passing close by to Venus, Jupiter and The Pleiades tonight.After sunset we have another astronomical treat in store. The crescent Moon will be just to the left of Venus tonight and below those will be Jupiter – and as an extra special treat The Pleiades will be right above them all. The Pleiades is also known as “the Seven Sisters” – and it’s often confused with “the Little Dipper”. That’s because it does look a lot like people expect the little dipper would – but that is a much bigger object and hangs out in a completely different part of the sky (in the North).