Category Archives: Man-made Satellites

Starting 2012 strong – the International Space Station – a treat for all in Southern California.

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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” where the station will be perfectly aligned with the sun for some of the brightest passes theoretically possible.

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 Monday 2 Jan at 6:17pm is the brightest one in the list at -3.4.

Click on the date for each pass for further detail.

Date Mag Starts Max. altitude Ends
Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.
2 Jan -3.4 18:17:27 10 NW 18:20:38 58 NE 18:20:51 56 ENE
3 Jan -2.2 17:21:07 10 NNW 17:23:55 26 NE 17:26:40 10 E
3 Jan -1.0 18:57:25 10 WNW 19:00:00 22 SW 19:00:24 22 SW
4 Jan -2.7 18:00:18 10 NW 18:03:28 57 SW 18:06:36 10 SSE
5 Jan -3.2 17:03:37 10 NW 17:06:49 53 NE 17:09:57 10 ESE
5 Jan 0.4 18:42:17 10 WSW 18:42:35 10 SW 18:42:53 10 SW
6 Jan -0.7 17:43:24 10 WNW 17:46:06 24 SW 17:48:45 10 S
8 Jan 0.9 17:27:28 10 WSW 17:28:31 11 SW 17:29:32 10 SW
11 Jan 0.0 06:30:38 10 S 06:32:58 18 SE 06:35:18 10 E

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.

More great views of the International Space Station

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The International Space StationThe International Space Station will be visible again in the sky above southern California every night for the coming week.

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.

Date Mag Starts Max. altitude Ends
Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.
12 Jun -3.5 21:45:19 10 SW 21:48:11 71 NW 21:51:04 10 NE
13 Jun -2.6 20:34:47 10 S 20:37:13 25 SE 20:39:40 10 ENE
13 Jun -0.7 22:10:10 10 W 22:12:22 20 NW 22:14:35 10 NNE
14 Jun -2.2 21:14:14 10 WSW 21:17:10 44 NW 21:20:08 10 NE
15 Jun -3.3 20:09:13 10 SSW 20:12:11 52 SE 20:15:11 10 ENE
15 Jun 0.1 21:46:18 10 WNW 21:48:01 14 NNW 21:49:44 10 N
16 Jun -1.3 20:39:58 10 WSW 20:42:44 31 NW 20:45:32 10 NNE
17 Jun -0.4 21:12:36 10 NW 21:13:35 11 NNW 21:14:34 10 N

Click on the date to get a star chart and other pass details.

note: above predictions provided by the web site http://www.Heavens-Above.com.  

As the above table shows the predications as captured on Jun 11th the information may not remain accurate.  Please check the latest predictions here.  These predictions are centered for an observer near Los Angeles, CA and will work reasonably well for anyone in Southern California.  If you live further away please select your own location on the Heavens-Above.com web site.

ISS visible over SoCal every night for the next week.

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The International Space StationThe International Space Station will be visible again in the sky above southern California every night for the coming week.   Currently the ISS has a newly docked Russian supply vehicle.   Space Shuttle Endeavour, which was supposed to launch on Friday, may launch on May 8th – however NASA has not released an official launch date yet.

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.

Date Mag Starts Max. altitude Ends
Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.
2 May -1.1 20:49:55 10 N 20:51:27 13 NNE 20:52:23 12 NE
3 May -2.7 21:13:07 10 NNW 21:15:39 37 NNE 21:15:39 37 NNE
4 May -1.2 20:02:58 10 N 20:04:34 14 NNE 20:06:10 10 ENE
4 May -1.8 21:37:09 10 WNW 21:38:55 30 W 21:38:55 30 W
5 May -2.8 20:26:04 10 NNW 20:28:49 39 NE 20:30:43 17 ESE
6 May -2.8 20:49:59 10 WNW 20:52:44 42 SW 20:54:00 25 S
7 May -0.6 21:15:40 10 WSW 21:16:21 11 SW 21:17:03 10 SW
8 May -2.6 20:02:32 10 WNW 20:05:18 41 SW 20:08:02 10 SSE
9 May -0.5 20:28:13 10 WSW 20:28:46 10 SW 20:29:20 10 SW

Click on the date to get a star chart and other pass details.

note: above predictions provided by the web site http://www.Heavens-Above.com

The International Space Station visible over Southern California for the next few nights.

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The International Space StationThe International Space Station will be visible in the skys above southern California for the next four nights. 

It 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. 

Date Mag Starts Max. altitude Ends
Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.
16 Apr -3.2 20:29:34 10 SSW 20:32:18 37 SE 20:32:47 34 ESE
17 Apr -2.4 20:54:34 10 WSW 20:57:22 43 NW 20:59:03 20 NNE
18 Apr -3.2 19:44:28 10 SSW 19:47:14 41 SE 19:50:00 10 ENE
18 Apr -0.4 21:20:55 10 WNW 21:22:37 14 NNW 21:24:19 10 N
19 Apr -2.1 20:09:25 10 WSW 20:12:10 39 NW 20:14:56 10 NNE

 

Click on the date to get a star chart and other pass details.

note: above predictions provided by the web site http://www.Heavens-Above.com