June 17th, 2009
ISS Now Visible in Daytime!
Written by Nancy Atkinson
The International Space Station seen during the day. Credit: Spaceweather.com
Oh wow! I love satellite watching, and especially the International Space Station, but now I don’t have to wait for nightfall anymore. We reported that the ISS had become the second brightest object in the night sky back in March 2009 with the addition of the final set of solar arrays. And now its been confirmed that the space station, under the right conditions, can be visible during the day, too. “On June 13th, I was watching a red-headed woodpecker’s nest when the ISS passed overhead,” said Brooke O’Klatner of Charlotte, North Carolina, who took this image, which was posted on Spaceweather.com.
And the ISS will get even brighter when the STS-127 mission arrives, hopefully in July (liftoff has been re-scheduled for July 11 after being postponed today because of a hydrogen leak.) The mission will add an addition on to the Kibo lab, and with Endeavour attached to the station, it will be quite bright. Can’t wait! In the meantime, I’m going to test out my best eagle eyes and try to see the ISS during the day. If anyone is able to see it during a daytime pass, let us know! (Pictures encouraged!)
Filed under: Observing, Space Station
Tags: ISSRelated stories on Universe Today
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June 17th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
how can you be sure its ISS
June 17th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
This is very cool!
Kyle, you can go to a website called Heavens Above that will tell you when and where the ISS can be seen. Plug in the city in which you live, and it will give the times that the ISS, and any number of other satellites you may be interested in seeing, pass over your area!
June 18th, 2009 at 1:31 am
@ MichaelL….
Heavens above has the place where I live in the wrong time zone. It’s out (forward) by one hour.
I have a theory that application programmers drink too much beer and/or don’t get enough sleep
June 18th, 2009 at 3:23 am
But there are no ISS flybys on 13th June above Charlotte, NC. (according to Heavens Above)
http://www.heavens-above.com/PassSummary.aspx?satid=25544&lat=35.227&lng=-80.843&loc=Charlotte&alt=229&tz=EST&Date=54990.1666666667
June 18th, 2009 at 5:10 am
uh… Heavens Above only predicts nigthtime passes