There are a good many objects in the blackness of the night sky. The brightest, and easiest to spot, of course, is the moon.
Not only is it bright, it’s slow. It lumbers across the night sky. The full moon rises at sunset and sets at sunrise. It’s not hard to follow.
The second brightest object in the night sky is not a star, but a planet. Venus is fairly easy to find. This coming Tuesday, it will be visible in the night sky over Polk County until about 9:23 p.m. when it sets.
The third brightest object in the night sky – which sometimes exceeds Venus in brightness – is the International Space Station. Its brightness, like that of Venus, depends on how much sunlight it is catching and reflecting back to Earth.
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Unlike the two aforementioned objects, the ISS is pretty speedy, and its trip across the night sky is measured in minutes rather than hours.
This Tuesday, Polk Countians will have a 5-minute window to see it, beginning at 6:18 a.m. It will appear in the southern sky and travel above the horizon until it disappears below the horizon in the east-southeast.
It will first appear at 10 degrees above the horizon. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s ISS website advises how to find this 10 degree angle: “The horizon is at 0 degrees, and directly overhead is 90 degrees. If you hold your fist at arm’s length and place your fist resting on the horizon, the top will be about 10 degrees.”
As it travels across the sky, the ISS will reach a maximum height above the horizon of 22 degrees. In other words, you’ll need a view Tuesday morning with an unobstructed view of the southern horizon.
As you might have guessed, all of this helpful information came from NASA and its ISS website. It can be found at this link: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov.
Once there, enter your city or town and the site will bring forth a list of dates, times and directions when the space station will be visible above the horizon in that area.
Another helpful feature is this: Signing up will put those dates and times in an email – but those will be limited to the “good” sighting opportunities: “That is, sightings that are high enough in the sky (40 degrees or more) and last long enough to give you the best view of the orbiting laboratory.”
(Another fine viewing opportunity will be on Thursday, the 21st, beginning at 6:22 a.m. The ISS will first appear about 33 degrees above the southwest horizon and continue almost straight overhead before disappearing into the northeast. The crossing will take about five minutes.)
The site also has links to several other web pages, including the main mission page for the International Space Station.
Lonnie Brown can be reached at LedgerDatabase@aol.com.
