Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Well, I Finally Saw It: The International Space Station

It was quite a sight to see. So bright and moving so fast across the sky.

I've had an astronomy app on my iPhone for what seems like about six months now, and it would, from time to time, alert me that the ISS was going to be visible in a few minutes, and I'd run outside to take a look. In all this time, though, I've never seen it. Either there was too much cloud cover, or the arc was so low that the tree line obscured it throughout its pass.

It's really an amazing sight. It went right past Jupiter, then proceeded across the sky at a very high arc, and as it approached the horizon, it quickly faded (even before reaching it).

Do they have bright lights on that thing pointed down towards the earth or is it the sun that lights it up like that?

It's all from the sun. It disappears before it reaches the horizon because it goes into the earth's shadow. I've seen it disappear like that when it's straight overhead.

Thanks for the info.

I saw it without realizing what it was. Then I got notified of a time where it would be visible, ran outside and waited, but nothing.

Have seen it many times. When a buddy of mine used to live in Grand Junction which is couple hundred miles west of me, a couple of times we'd be on the phone and watching it at the same time.

Saw it a few times, it’s amazing how fast it’s moving across the sky.

Yup.

17,000 mph is pretty impressive.

Used to watch it pretty often, very cool.

We like to take our pontoon out on the lake at night and watch for meteor showers. We have often seen the ISS go across the sky. As others have said it is impressive to watch. It's amazing how many satellites that can be seen going across the sky.

No nightlights that i have heard of.

We have been watching it for years,sometimes it is on time and sometimes a little late.

I also look for the starlink orbs that are easy to be seen before they go dark.

Also look for falling stars.

It's quite a task to keep in view without auto tracking as fast as it's cooking along, but you can make out the general shape with pretty much any decent telescope over about 3.5"

The brightness is all related to the sun and overhead angles during the pass, but it can be over -6 at its best, which is brighter than anything in the night sky with the exception of the moon.

Back in the Shuttle days, it appeared to be twice the size when the two were docked. Once, I saw them pass over when they were close together but undocked.

For those without a phone app, here's a website where you can track the ISS - or any other satellite you can name...LINK

Cool

Hawkeye,
What mobil app are you using?
I've seen satellites before but never ISS. It would be pretty cool to see.

It was much brighter than Jupiter, which is very bright, as it passed right by it.

Sky Guide.

Yeah, Jupiter is about -2.2 right now, so pretty much any decent ISS pass will outshine it. The ones farther toward the horizon are dimmer, but basically anytime it is an overhead pass it'll be -3 or better.

Fisrt I heard of it was last night……a bit too late for a visual! ☹️ memtb

Don't forget that there is now also a Chinese station.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiangong_space_station


How to see and track the Tiangong Chinese space station
By Robert Lea published 1 December 2023

Although it's more challenging to observe than the International Space Station (ISS), the Chinese space station, officially known as Tiangong, can be seen from Earth's surface.

Tiangong, which means "Heavenly Palace" in Mandarin ,  appears fainter than the ISS because the Chinese space station, along with its solar panel area, is smaller — about 20% the size of the ISS, according to Today in the Sky. However, it is still possible to see Tiangong with the naked eye, you just need to know where and when to look.

https://www.space.com/how-to-see-track-chinese-space-station-tiangong


Cheers!

It had 6500K LED floodlights so it easy to spot.
🤦‍♂️