Spaceship Sighting Alert!

[/caption]
If you catch this post on Monday night, you might have a chance to see the International Space Station and Discovery while the space shuttle is still docked to the ISS. Flying as one, the station/shuttle complex is very bright and very easy to spot. But Tuesday evening you’ll be able to see double. The shuttle is scheduled to undock from the station Tuesday at 2:26 pm CDT(19:26 GMT), and if you have clear skies, you should be able to see Discovery slightly trailing the ISS. It will be a great sight — highly recommended!

How do you find out when the duo will be flying over your backyard?

NASA has a Quick and Easy Sightings by City site, where you just search for your country and city which provides local times and the location in the sky where the station will be visible.

The Heaven’s Above website is also an excellent site to find out when the ISS, as well as all sorts of other satellites and other heavenly sights will be visible. At Heaven’s Above, you can plug in your exact latitude and longitude, so if you live in a remote area, you’ll be able to have exact times and locations to look for satellites instead of relying on information for the nearest city.

Spaceweather.com has their Satellite Flyby Tracker page to provide sighting info for the US and Canada. Use this link for other countries around the world.

There’s also this very cool Google Satellite tracker.

Additionally, you can get a notification on Twitter when the space station will be zooming over your skies. Follow Twisst.

Here’s wishing everyone clear skies and great views!

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond. Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/

Recent Posts

Enceladus’s Fault Lines are Responsible for its Plumes

The Search for Life in our Solar System leads seekers to strange places. From our…

20 hours ago

Lunar Explorers Could Run to Create Artificial Gravity for Themselves

Few things in life are certain. But it seems highly probable that people will explore…

22 hours ago

This is an Actual Picture of Space Debris

Space debris is a growing problem, so companies are working on ways to mitigate it.…

23 hours ago

Insanely Detailed Webb Image of the Horsehead Nebula

Few space images are as iconic as those of the Horsehead Nebula. Its shape makes…

2 days ago

Binary Stars Form in the Same Nebula But Aren’t Identical. Now We Know Why.

It stands to reason that stars formed from the same cloud of material will have…

2 days ago

Earth Had a Magnetosphere 3.7 Billion Years Ago

We go about our daily lives sheltered under an invisible magnetic field generated deep inside…

2 days ago