Flyover by International Space Station
On July 14, 2001 I watched the International Space Station (ISS) fly over my home near Flint Michigan. I was amazed at how bright and how BIG it looked. Well, not as big as the moon or anything, but it looked like a really huge star. It moved at a pretty stately pace too. It took about 3 minutes to cross the sky.
If you want to try watching for it yourself, here's some links to NASA sites that tell you aboutit:
- NASA Manned Spaceflite page
- NASA's Sightings page - tells you what you can see, and when
- NASA's directions for interpreting sightings data
- Information from NASA about the International Space Station
Double-click
the picture to see bigger version
Click here to watch video (650 KBy)
The ISS is pretty big, which make it easy to see. Most sightings are at dawn or dusk, because that's when the sun and earth are positioned to best illuminate the ISS (remember you only see it by reflected light). This photo was taken at 5:27 am in my front yard in Flushing MI. The ISS moved from SW to ESE, at about 56 degrees of elevation.