INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TELESCOPE HOW TO

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TELESCOPE HOW TO

There’s also an FAQ page with instructions on how to read the text and email messages. The organization will inform you of each time there’s a sighting opportunity, as well as which direction the station will be coming from, where it’s headed, and how long it will be visible. If you want to be kept in the ISS spotting loop, you can sign up for NASA’s text or email alert messages. (That’s the same reason the moon appears to shine.) The space station is visible because it reflects light from the sun. Skies are expected to be clear at dusk, and the space station will be visible for six minutes, which is longer than most other sighting opportunities this month. Conditions during Thursday’s event will be ideal. Conditions have to align for you to spot the station though: it must pass overhead during dawn or dusk for it to be visible. They range from several times a week to once a month, according to NASA. Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of Expedition 5, who lived six months in space on the station, once said of her 2002 experience that, “Being here, living here, is something that I will probably spend the rest of my life striving to find just the right words to try to encompass and convey just a fraction of what makes our endeavors in space so special and essential.”īecause the ISS circles the earth so often, sighting opportunities aren’t infrequent. In that time, it’s sailed around the earth nearly 90,000 times. NASA astronaut Jessica Meir aboard the ISS | Photo via NASAĪt that speed, the ISS circles the earth every 90 minutes, giving the astronauts living onboard (yes, there are people living onboard) 16 sunrises and sunsets every day - imagine that! Crews have inhabited the space station for more than 15 years.

International space station telescope