Author: /u/RealConfirmologist

Tonight at 8:17 PM, watch the sky to the northwest, and you’ll see a very bright star appear, crossing over almost straight overhead, disappearing 7 minutes later in the south-southeast sky.

If you’ve watched it before, you know. If you never have, you really should.

It’s very bright, and you could almost confuse it with a jet, but when you watch for a minute you realize it’s WAY higher than any jet and also WAY, WAY faster.

In fact, it’s going about 17,500 mph, or 5 miles per second.

If my info sources are right, there are 10 astronauts on board right now. It’s crazy to think – there are Russians and Americans, and they continue to work side-by-side despite what’s going on down here.

They have a stationary bicycle up there, so if you think about it, when someone is on that bike, they’re going faster than any terrestrial bicycle ever could. I occasionally ride bikes with a retired astronaut who spent 6 months up there, and it’s too bad he couldn’t log his ISS bike rides on Strava because … think of the total miles he’s ridden on a stationary bike!!

Anyway, set an alarm to get outside this evening to watch this. Bring a friend or family member(s) and maybe get on the phone with someone else who’s way across town, and watch it together. It’s really fun.

If you have never watched the International Space Station fly over, you’ve been missing an awe-inspiring experience! If the sky is clear, it’s going to be a lot of fun to watch.

Get somewhere with a clear view of the sky, especially toward the south-southwest. At 8:03 PM, watch a little above the horizon toward the SSW, and you’ll see a what looks like a very bright star appear, climbing rapidly.

It’ll cross near the middle of the sky and disappear 7 minutes later, in the northeast sky.

Keep in mind that there are humans (even some Russians!) on that thing. They’re flying around planet earth at 17,130 MPH, or about 5 miles per second!

Another fun thing to do is to get someone on the phone that’s far away, and watch the ISS together. It brings a connection that’s hard to describe.

To know where to watch, go to this link and be sure to allow it to get your location – you can input a street address too – and you’ll be able to see an animation of the ISS with the Google Street View surroundings, so you will know EXACTLY where to look, and when!

You can also get notifications of upcoming viewing opportunities (it isn’t something that happens every week or two, a lot of things have to be lined up for the ISS to be visible to us) by signing up here, and it’s free.

Looks like it’ll be clear and very nice out there, so get some friends together or just go out by yourself.

You’ll thank me later.

Edit: Corrected direction info. (SMH.)

Tonight, take a 5 minute break from watching TV and go outside to witness the I.S.S. zoom by.

If you have never seen it, you really SHOULD. It’s like watching a very bright star crossing the sky. Except this star has human beings aboard.

How do you figure out where to watch? Check the bold part further down in this post. It’s easy!

Go outside and find a place where you can see the sky, especially the northwest sky and southeast sky. Tonight at 8 minutes after 7, the ISS will appear in the NW sky about 10 degrees above the horizon. It will then cross straight overhead, from NW to SE, disappearing when it reaches about 30 degrees above the southeast horizon of the sky.

It’s going 4.6 miles per second. That’s about 17,150 MPH. Imagine that. The astronauts on the ISS see the sun rise 16 times a day. That seems like it would make it a challenge to have a normal sleep cycle, right?

Anyway, get out there tonight if the sky is fairly clear, and call someone you know that lives way across town (but somewhere in the Houston/Galveston area) and have them watch it while you’re on the phone with them. It’s a unique experience to be on the phone with someone 30 miles away, and to have both of you watching the same event!

Visible: 5 min, Max Height: 85°, Appears: 10° above NW, Disappears: 22° above SE

There are a few good apps for smart phones that make it very easy to see where & when you can watch a flyover of the ISS. ISS Detector works great.

The web site https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/ provides a nice interface and simulation of what you’ll see from the Google Street View perspective, which can be helpful to get you properly oriented for an upcoming viewing. It’s free.

You can set up notifications via SpotTheStation web site.

By the way, the I.S.S. crosses over us a lot more often than we can SEE it. For it to be easily seen, sun must be hitting it but the sky around it must be relatively dark. That’s why all the good viewing opportunities are in the early evening or early morning, when the ISS is in the shadow of Planet Earth.

Edit/Update, added ISS Detector link.

Since we’re bound to have some power failures, sadly we’re probably going to have some people die from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Maybe we can prevent some deaths or close-calls:

Spread the word: Don’t run generators in your garage or any place that might allow the exhaust to get into your home.

Sure, portable generators all have clear warning decals on them and the instruction manuals do, too… but anytime a lot of people start running these things, we end up with dead people.

So if you got one, please be careful. If you know someone else that got one, maybe reach out to them and be sure they know how to avoid CO poisoning.

Saw a “Neighbor” alert on my Ring app. A guy approaches a front door and then turns and runs.

It occurred to me that a lot of people may not be aware that there’s a new feature with Ring, that will play an audible warning when motion is detected.

This video shows the 4 AM visit, then how to turn on the warning in the Ring app, then an example of the warning in action when a “visitor” is detected near my front door.

YouTube video link.