Watching the International Space Station

You know what we’ve been doing lately. On the nights when I’m home, we will sometimes go out and watch the skies just after sunset and we’ll see the ISS (International Space Station) fly overhead. It’s pretty cool. Now of course you don’t see the station like the image above, without a really REALLY good telescope, but to see the station fly over, knowing that that is what it is, is actually pretty exciting. I’ve had my Father-in-law out watching in amazement, my wife looking for it (actually found it one night when I was looking in the opposite direction for it) and of course the kids are excited to see it. I’ve shown the kids the live feeds from NASA of the astronauts in both the Space Shuttle and the ISS so they understand what it is and what’s going on. I’ve also seen some links online for people that have used cameras and telescopes to track the Station across the sky. Here’s one from a TV news station in Tennessee.
Where I live in Southern California, the ISS won’t be visible for another week in the evening. I use a tracking site from NASA, to find sighting opportunities. Southern California is out of luck for the next few days, but tonight (Saturday), the New York area will have an opportunity to see it. Check out the next sighting opportunity in your area and look for it.

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