Lies in orbit. Is it possible to see the ISS from Earth with the naked eye? Tomorrow the ISS can be seen with the naked eye. Where to see the ISS from the ground with the naked eye

Text

Artyom Luchko

When people talk about the ISS, few people think that it is closer than it seems. Thanks to its size and constant orbit, most people on our planet can see the international station with the naked eye. It is quite possible that you have already seen it before, but did not know about it.

The ISS flies past us several times a day, but it becomes visible when several factors coincide. The ISS is illuminated by the sun, and during its flight over a certain segment it reflects sunlight in the same way as, for example, the Moon. To see the ISS from Earth, you need to be in the correct position relative to the Sun and the object being observed. We've put together a few tips to help you track the station in the sky yourself.

Spot The Station

One of the easiest ways to keep track of the ISS is to subscribe to NASA's Spot The Station, a website created specifically for enthusiasts like you and me. In the Sign Up for Alerts section, select your country, city and enter your e-mail. Mark which flights you will track - morning, evening or all. After confirming your registration, each time 12 hours before the upcoming station flyby, NASA will notify you by e-mail.

The ISS always flies from west to east. Of course, the station is not as spectacular as the Death Star from Star Wars - it rather looks like a very bright and incredibly fast-moving star. The white object turns orange as it moves, moving into the Earth's shadow until it completely disappears from view. To see the station, set an alert on your phone, go outside at the right moment and carefully look at the sky above the horizon in the west.

The International Space Station, whose first module was launched in 1998, is currently the largest structure in space. Together with solar panel farms, the ISS is 72 m long, 108 m wide and 20 m high, and is comparable in area to a football field.

This behemoth, which is a laboratory, factory, testing ground and home for crew members, moves in Earth's orbit between 330 and 410 km at an average speed of 27,724 km/h and makes 15.7 revolutions around the planet per day. Reflecting sunlight, the station is very noticeable even from a distance of many hundreds of kilometers and sometimes, crossing the sky, it “flashes” brighter than any star. Therefore, observers often mistook the ISS for a UFO.

Online tools

There are many resources on the Internet about the ISS, as well as Twitter accounts, for example, @twisst And @virtualastro, which help determine the time of passage of the station. But the most convenient and popular site where you can find information about the exact time, a specific area of ​​the sky, the brightness of an object is Heavens-above.com

On its main page you can see a diagram depicting the Earth and a space station flying around it, which displays the location of the ISS in real time.

In the upper right corner you can select the language, as well as the coordinates from where you will conduct the observation. To do this, you need to click on the Unspecified link, enter your locality in the search bar and move the red icon as close as possible to the specific place where you are. After that, click the “Apply” button and select the ISS in the “Satellites” section. You will see a table with data on the station's flights over the next 10 days.

All the information in the table may seem more complicated than it actually is. The first point is the maximum brightness of the station in stellar magnitude. Next are the time when the ISS will appear in the field of view (accurate to a second), its altitude above the horizon (in degrees) and azimuth, where Z means west and SW- southwest and so on. Next are three columns with data about the moment when the station rises highest above the horizon (the time when this happens, the height and part of the horizon). The next three columns provide similar data for the end of visibility.

By clicking on each date in the table, you can see the ISS flight path in the starry sky. If you have a good eye for the stars, you can fine-tune your camera to that part of the sky to capture the flyby.

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The International Space Station orbits hundreds of miles above the Earth, and astronauts from different countries live and work on it for months at a time. The space station can always be seen when it moves over the place where you are at the moment. This article presents simple steps by following which you can catch your eye on this stunning structure.

Steps

Part 1

1. Research the International Space Station schedule to find out exactly when it will be moving into your area.

   • To do this, you can use the links provided below, or write in the search bar the query “international space station schedule”. These charts contain information to help you determine the appropriate time. Select a site where you can enter your address, city, postal code; If you enter incorrect data, the information displayed may also be incorrect.
   • Check out the charts on Heavens Above, NASA, or SpaceWeather.
   • Some sites themselves determine the location based on the data from the nearest server of your provider. This data is not always correct, so double-check the name of the city or town, or select another site.

2. Some sites use the abbreviation ISS. Find a time when the station is visible for several minutes.

   • Sometimes, depending on your area, it will only be visible for a few seconds. And sometimes - two minutes or more. Find the time when the station is visible the longest so you can take a closer look at it. Write down the time.
   • The station is easiest to see at night during the few hours between sunset and dawn. Below you will find out when the station will be best visible during the day.

3. Some graphs present station appearance times in their own order, while others will require you to figure out the times yourself by calculating the start time from the end time. Time is usually written in the format hour:minute:second. Check whether the site uses 24 or 12 hour format. Most graphs indicate "brightness" or "magnitude"; If you don't find it on one site, you can turn to another. The brightness scale may seem strange to you, because on it a negative number, for example -4, indicates greater brightness than, for example, +3! The website provides recommendations that will help you figure out which values ​​on the brightness scale indicate good visibility of the station:

   • Values ​​ranging from -4 to -2 indicate the best visibility; in this case, the station can be seen even during the day.
   • Values ​​between -2 and +4 usually indicate good visibility, but strong street lighting may interfere.
   • Values ​​between +4 and +6 indicate poor visibility. If the sky is clear and there is no interference from street lighting, you may be able to see the station. In this case, you will need binoculars.
   • To get a rough idea of ​​the "brightness" of the station, compare the value with the following values: the sun during the day has a magnitude of about -26.7, the moon -12.5, and Venus - the brightest planet - -4.4.

4. Check the weather forecast. Once you find a time when the station will be clearly visible for a long time, check what weather is expected that day. If possible, try to find an hourly forecast to make sure you won't be affected by clouds while viewing. Forecasts presented earlier than a day in advance are always incorrect, so check the forecast again 24 hours before the station becomes visible.

   Part 2

   Find a station in the sky

   1. Determine the location of the space station using the graph. Use the graph you found in the last section. The section should be titled "where to look", "appearance", "azimuth" or "AZ". Study the contents of this section to determine exactly where in the sky the satellite will be visible.

      • Depending on the letter indicated in the section, look north, south, west or east. The chart can provide you with more detailed directional information. For example, northwest means the direction between north and west.
      • If you're unsure about how to find your bearings, read this article on how to use a compass.

   2. Find out how high to look. The graph should include a section called "altitude" with the numbers listed below as "degrees" (or the degree symbol - º). Astronomers typically divide the sky into many small segments called degrees, which help find the location of objects in the sky. A value of 0º is the horizon line, 90º is perpendicular to the ground, and 45º is exactly halfway between 0º and 90º. To find approximate positions between these values, extend your arm in front of you and make a fist with your palm. The distance between the horizon and the fist will be approximately 10º. If you need, for example, 20º, place your fist directly above the horizon line and place the fist of your other hand on top. The top of the second fist will point to 20º. Continue changing the position of your fists to find a position that suits you.

      • It may seem strange that the station appears right in the middle of the sky, and not from beyond the horizon. This is because the station becomes visible only when the sun's rays reflect from it. When the station emerges from the shadow of the ground, it immediately becomes visible. The station is difficult to see during sunset or dawn until it rises higher from the bright sunlight.

   3. Find the space station from this location. Based on the time information on the graph and the altitude and direction values ​​from the previous steps, find a station in the sky. It usually appears as a moving dot or a small white and yellow ball. The station doesn't shine or sparkle with light, but if you're lucky, it can become a little brighter for just a second if sunlight reflects off its surface.

      • The station does not shimmer in different colors.
      • The station does not leave a mark on the sky like an airplane.

   4. Use binoculars only when necessary. It will improve the perception of objects. Fifty millimeter binoculars will help you see brightness up to +10 on the scale discussed earlier. However, using only binoculars to find a station in the sky will be quite difficult, since not the entire sky is visible through binoculars. It's best to find the station without using binoculars, then simply hold the binoculars up to your eyes when you find it.

      • Using a telescope, you can find even very inconspicuous objects in the sky, but finding a space station is almost impossible, but this can be done if you accurately measure the direction of the telescope. Use it in the same way as binoculars, but if you are not exactly sure how to use the telescope correctly, then in this case choose a time when the station will be visible for several minutes.

The station's night visibility period will last a week

From today, the night visibility period of the International Space Station begins, experts from the state corporation Roscosmos reported. The ISS will reportedly be visible to the naked eye after midnight, without the need for telescopes or binoculars.

If weather conditions do not let observers down, the International Space Station will appear in the western part of the night sky and will outwardly resemble a star, although, unlike real stars, it will not be in place, but will tend to the east. Also, the ISS will be distinguished from most other bright points in the night sky by the fact that the station does not flicker. Due to the fact that it will move quickly across the sky and will surpass even Jupiter and Venus in brightness, it will be quite easy to pay attention to it, Roscosmos employees note. For most of its journey, the luminous “dot” of the ISS will be white, but at some point its color may change to red-orange - at this time the station crew themselves will observe the sunset.

In many regions of Russia, it will be possible to watch the ISS travel across the sky until July 22. As experts note, the station will be clearly visible from the Earth, since in the near future, on a certain segment of its trajectory, it will reflect sunlight in the same way as the Moon.

According to experts, in order to see the ISS flyby, it will be necessary to monitor the sky above the western horizon. Special applications for smartphones can also help with observation, Roscosmos adds.

In Moscow, the periods of visibility of the ISS this year fall on July 15 (2:35), July 17 (2:26), July 18 (1:35 and 3:08), July 19 (2:16), July 20 (1 :25 and 2:28), as well as July 21 (0:34 and 2:06). The station will appear brightest on days when it makes two flybys per night, during the second of these flybys. You can find out what time you should look for the ISS in the sky over some other Russian cities on the Roscosmos website.

Many people believe that the International Space Station (ISS) flies somewhere very far away, and in order to see it (let alone photograph it) you need special equipment. However, this is not at all true. The ISS flies over our heads several times every day and seeing it is no more difficult than an ordinary passenger plane. You just need to know when and where to look. The brightness of the ISS can compete even with Jupiter and Venus, and its rapid movement across the sky attracts attention even more. In this article I want to tell you how and when you can see the ISS tonight in Moscow, I’ll tell you how to find out the time of passage of the ISS for any other place and date, and also touch on the topic of photo and video shooting of the ISS.

What will be needed for observations?

And we will need clear skies (everything is in order tonight):

... and an open area with a good view to the southwest, south and southeast (for example, a supermarket parking lot, a sports ground, the roof of a building, etc.). The proximity of bright lights will not hurt us, since the ISS is a very bright object. If you are too lazy to go outside, you can get by with a balcony or window facing south.

You also need a watch synchronized with precise time, and a compass (in case you don’t know at least the approximate directions to the cardinal points at the chosen point for observations).

When and where to look?

The ISS completes one orbit in about an hour and a half. This means that if the Earth did not rotate, we would see the ISS flying along the same trajectory every hour and a half. Since the Earth still rotates, the “footprint” from the ISS on the Earth’s surface shifts to the west with each revolution. In addition, the ISS is visible only when it itself is illuminated by the Sun, while it is already dark at the observer’s location (you can manage it, but it’s more difficult). To calculate today's visible passages of the ISS over Moscow, I used the online service heavens-above.com (residents of other cities can easily get the ISS visibility conditions there themselves). The most favorable passage for observations is expected today at approximately 22:47.

The stars on the map won’t help us much since they are hard to see in the city. It’s easier to navigate the cardinal directions using a compass. If you don’t have a compass, look for the direction where the evening dawn is burning, it will be northwest.

The ISS will ascend at 22:42:30 , but it’s too early to start looking for it at this time. At the very horizon it is still not bright enough, and trees, buildings and haze can interfere with the view. It is better to wait until it rises at least 10 degrees above the horizon. This will happen in 22:44:38 , the ISS will be somewhere between the west and southwest. You will notice a dim, non-flickering star that is slowly moving to the left and up. This star is the ISS flying somewhere over France at a distance of one and a half thousand kilometers. Don’t rush to get upset if you weren’t able to notice it at that moment - you might have been hampered by light clouds on the horizon or you yourself were a little miscalculated with the direction. The star will move faster, glow brighter, and within a minute it will be much easier to find it. The station will reach a maximum altitude of 40 degrees in 22:47:43 , being almost to the south in azimuth. At this moment, the ISS will be just below the star Altair, comparable in brightness to Venus, and in angular speed - with a jet plane. The distance to it will be about 600 km. Then the ISS will descend, moving to the east, and in 22:48:52 will enter the shadow of the Earth. Due to the presence of the atmosphere, the brightness of the station will not drop instantly. It will gradually fade away over ten seconds. Particularly attentive observers will notice that the ISS will turn red before going dark. After all, at this moment the astronauts on board will see the sun setting, and at sunset the sun's rays turn red. When the station is finally out of sight, look to the east and as a bonus, you'll see the moon rising.

Note: The above times will be correct to the second for an observer on Red Square. If you are far from the center, there will be differences of a few seconds. For example, in Reutov, the maximum height will be reached 2 seconds later. Entry into the shadow will, of course, occur simultaneously for all observers.

Another less convenient passage for observations will occur one orbit earlier, at 21:11 . You can try to observe it first, but at 9 pm it is still quite light and the ISS will be difficult to spot against the light sky. In addition, the station will rise only 28 degrees.

How to take a photo or video of the ISS?

If you are going to observe the ISS for the first time, then I recommend not to be distracted by the photo yet. Better look with your eyes, get an idea of ​​the brightness and speed. Next time, for example tomorrow, you can go out with a camera. Set the long exposure to 10-30 seconds. Adjust the aperture and sensitivity so as not to overexpose the sky, but at the same time so that the stars are visible. Mount the camera on a tripod and point it at the part of the sky where the flight is expected to occur. A few minutes earlier, you can take a test shot to make sure, using the stars as a guide, that the desired area of ​​the sky is captured in the frame. As a result, you can get a frame like this (the photo is not mine, I found it on Google Images).

If you expect to fly near the Moon, you can catch an interesting shot. For example, this is what I got:

In dynamics it looked like this (shot on a Panasonic HDC-SD90 compact video camera).

What about the transits of the Moon and the Sun shown at the beginning of the article?

Recently, news portals circulated the news that NASA published unique photographs of the ISS against the backdrop of the Moon. Marks even wrote about this on Giktimes. In fact, there is nothing unusual in that photo, you can verify this by searching for keywords " is transit" in Google Images. On the first try, I managed to take a similar photo and video with rather modest equipment (the same as what I used in the article Watching a solar eclipse together):

It's best to watch the video in full screen mode:

The main problem here is that the shadow (or rather penumbra) cast by the ISS from the Sun or Moon is only a few kilometers in size. In a randomly chosen place, such a phenomenon happens extremely rarely, so you will have to wait for the right moment, get into a car and drive several tens of kilometers. To find out when and where to go, you can use the calsky.com service. There you can get a map showing where the shadow of the ISS will pass in the next couple of days. Here, for example, is a fragment of a map of the nearest transits on the Moon.

Conclusion

I hope that thanks to this article, many readers will go outside tonight and look at the sky. I invite you to share your impressions in the comments!

Many people believe that the International Space Station (ISS) flies somewhere very far away, and in order to see it (let alone photograph it) you need special equipment. However, this is not at all true. The ISS flies over our heads several times every day and seeing it is no more difficult than an ordinary passenger plane. You just need to know when and where to look. The brightness of the ISS can compete even with Jupiter and Venus, and its rapid movement across the sky attracts attention even more. In this article I want to tell you how and when you can see the ISS tonight in Moscow, I’ll tell you how to find out the time of passage of the ISS for any other place and date, and also touch on the topic of photo and video shooting of the ISS.

What will be needed for observations?

And we will need clear skies (everything is in order tonight):

... and an open area with a good view to the southwest, south and southeast (for example, a supermarket parking lot, a sports ground, the roof of a building, etc.). The proximity of bright lights will not hurt us, since the ISS is a very bright object. If you are too lazy to go outside, you can get by with a balcony or window facing south.

You also need a watch synchronized with precise time, and a compass (in case you don’t know at least the approximate directions to the cardinal points at the chosen point for observations).

When and where to look?

The ISS completes one orbit in about an hour and a half. This means that if the Earth did not rotate, we would see the ISS flying along the same trajectory every hour and a half. Since the Earth still rotates, the “footprint” from the ISS on the Earth’s surface shifts to the west with each revolution. In addition, the ISS is visible only when it itself is illuminated by the Sun, while it is already dark at the observer’s location (you can manage it, but it’s more difficult). To calculate today's visible passages of the ISS over Moscow, I used the online service heavens-above.com (residents of other cities can easily get the ISS visibility conditions there themselves). The most favorable passage for observations is expected today at approximately 22:47.

The stars on the map won’t help us much since they are hard to see in the city. It’s easier to navigate the cardinal directions using a compass. If you don’t have a compass, look for the direction where the evening dawn is burning, it will be northwest.

The ISS will ascend at 22:42:30 , but it’s too early to start looking for it at this time. At the very horizon it is still not bright enough, and trees, buildings and haze can interfere with the view. It is better to wait until it rises at least 10 degrees above the horizon. This will happen in 22:44:38 , the ISS will be somewhere between the west and southwest. You will notice a dim, non-flickering star that is slowly moving to the left and up. This star is the ISS flying somewhere over France at a distance of one and a half thousand kilometers. Don’t rush to get upset if you weren’t able to notice it at that moment - you might have been hampered by light clouds on the horizon or you yourself were a little miscalculated with the direction. The star will move faster, glow brighter, and within a minute it will be much easier to find it. The station will reach a maximum altitude of 40 degrees in 22:47:43 , being almost to the south in azimuth. At this moment, the ISS will be just below the star Altair, comparable in brightness to Venus, and in angular speed - with a jet plane. The distance to it will be about 600 km. Then the ISS will descend, moving to the east, and in 22:48:52 will enter the shadow of the Earth. Due to the presence of the atmosphere, the brightness of the station will not drop instantly. It will gradually fade away over ten seconds. Particularly attentive observers will notice that the ISS will turn red before going dark. After all, at this moment the astronauts on board will see the sun setting, and at sunset the sun's rays turn red. When the station is finally out of sight, look to the east and as a bonus, you'll see the moon rising.

Note: The above times will be correct to the second for an observer on Red Square. If you are far from the center, there will be differences of a few seconds. For example, in Reutov, the maximum height will be reached 2 seconds later. Entry into the shadow will, of course, occur simultaneously for all observers.

Another less convenient passage for observations will occur one orbit earlier, at 21:11 . You can try to observe it first, but at 9 pm it is still quite light and the ISS will be difficult to spot against the light sky. In addition, the station will rise only 28 degrees.

How to take a photo or video of the ISS?

If you are going to observe the ISS for the first time, then I recommend not to be distracted by the photo yet. Better look with your eyes, get an idea of ​​the brightness and speed. Next time, for example tomorrow, you can go out with a camera. Set the long exposure to 10-30 seconds. Adjust the aperture and sensitivity so as not to overexpose the sky, but at the same time so that the stars are visible. Mount the camera on a tripod and point it at the part of the sky where the flight is expected to occur. A few minutes earlier, you can take a test shot to make sure, using the stars as a guide, that the desired area of ​​the sky is captured in the frame. As a result, you can get a frame like this (the photo is not mine, I found it on Google Images).

If you expect to fly near the Moon, you can catch an interesting shot. For example, this is what I got:

In dynamics it looked like this (shot on a Panasonic HDC-SD90 compact video camera).

What about the transits of the Moon and the Sun shown at the beginning of the article?

Recently, news portals circulated the news that NASA published unique photographs of the ISS against the backdrop of the Moon. Even on Giktimes about this. In fact, there is nothing unusual in that photo, you can verify this by searching for keywords " is transit" in Google Images. On the first try, I managed to take similar photos and videos with fairly modest equipment (the same as what I used in the article):

It's best to watch the video in full screen mode:

The main problem here is that the shadow (or rather penumbra) cast by the ISS from the Sun or Moon is only a few kilometers in size. In a randomly chosen place, such a phenomenon happens extremely rarely, so you will have to wait for the right moment, get into a car and drive several tens of kilometers. To find out when and where to go, you can use the calsky.com service. There you can get a map showing where the shadow of the ISS will pass in the next couple of days. Here, for example, is a fragment of a map of the nearest transits on the Moon.

Conclusion

I hope that thanks to this article, many readers will go outside tonight and look at the sky. I invite you to share your impressions in the comments!