HOW TO FIND THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION WITH A TELESCOPE.

 

The International Space Station is a gigantic space lab and the biggest man-made object to fly in outer space. It is so enormous that in can be seen from any corner of the world, often with the unaided eye if the conditions are right.

Equaling the size of a football field, the space station revolves around the earth 250 miles above the surface at the breakneck speed of 17,500 miles per hour.

It is a space lab that is used to test out very precise scientific studies and have been inhabited since late 2000.

 

How the International Space Station Works?

Video by Jared Owen

 

The size of the ISS is so enormous that you do not really need a telescope or even a binocular to spot it.

It can very well be located by the unaided eye if you knew where to look and if the conditions where you live were right for observation.

It is as bright as Venus when it passes through the night sky and it’s very hard to miss if you are looking out for it.

It is often confused with planes at first but you can very easily verify if it is indeed the ISS by its steady movement without the flickering hazard lights of the plane and by its increases brightness as it passes the horizon.

Although the ISS is essentially orbiting the earth, it is not always easy to track it with the naked eye without adequate planning and a cloud free weather. But if you do get a glimpse of the ISS, it is indeed a very special experience.

The space station is visible to us because it reflects light off the Sun, the same principle because of which we can see the Moon. However, unlike the Moon, the ISS isn’t big or bright enough to be spotted during daytime.

Your best chance of spotting it is usually at dawn or dusk when the skies are clear. The ISS also cannot be seen whilst it is flying through the shadow of the earth since there is no sunlight there to reflect.

 

Interesting International Space Station Facts.

 

1. 230 people from 18 different countries have visited the International Space Station.

2. In 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, And traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets.

3. The space station is 357 feet end-to-end.

4. The space station has been occupied since November 2000.

5. The living and working space in the station is larger than a six-bedroom house.

6. To help stop the loss of muscle and bone mass in the body the astronauts work out at least two hours a day.

 

When to look for the ISS in the sky?

 

The chances of you spotting the ISS from you location heavily depends on its orbit and the time of the day that the ISS is scheduled to pass overhead.

There are multiple websites and app that can help you with the exact times with respect to your location and they can come really handy in planning your next observation.

 

How to spot the Space Station from your back yard.

Video by Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

 

In addition to such third party apps, NASA has its own dedicated website called Spot The Station that is built around providing you with accurate information as to when the ISS will be visible at a given location for the next couple of weeks.

It is different every time the ISS passes overhead at any given location. Sometimes it can be very dim and not really visible for a long period of time thus denying observers a satisfactory viewing while other times, it can be very bright and continuously visible for a number of minutes.

If you are planning to observe the ISS, you should plan it at night when the ISS is predicted to be in the horizon for a longer period of time.

These passes are brighter thus making it easier for you to locate them very early on.

Additionally check for the weather in your area so that the night is cloud free. If there are clouds in the sky, it can significantly hamper your viewing experience.

 

Preparation.

 

Reading the charts.

 

Look into charts of the International Space Station’s appearances in your general vicinity.

You can look for “International space station satellite chart” on the web. These charts contain a few valuable snippets of data that will enable you to make sense of when an observation is conceivable.

Pick a site that enables you to enter your location, city name, or postal district; on the off chance that you enter wrong data, the resultant data too might be wrong.

A few websites may endeavor to consequently recognize your area dependent on your web access supplier’s closest server. This isn’t very exact, so check for a name of the city or area, and change to an alternate site if incorrect.

A few sites may truncate the International Space Station as “ISS”.

 

Figuring out the perfect time.

 

Discover the times when the space station is obvious for a couple of minutes. Now and again, from your area, the ISS will just take a couple of moments to cross the noticeable bit of the sky.

On different occasions, it will take two minutes or more.

Search for appearances that keep going as far as might be feasible to give yourself the most obvious opportunity with regards to survey of the station. Record a few of these appearance.

Appearances around evening time, inside a couple of long periods of dusk or dawn, will be simplest to see.

A few graphs will list the length of the appearance in its very own section, while on others you may need to figure the appearance length yourself by subtracting the begin time from the end time.

These occasions are generally composed as three numbers, in hour:minute:second position. Check whether the site utilizes a 24 hour clock or the a.m./p.m. system.

 

Checking the weather.

 

When you’ve picked a time for when the station will be unmistakable for a moderately significant lot, look into the climate estimate for that day.

Attempt to discover 60 minutes by-hour climate estimate if conceivable, to see whether there will be overcast conditions hindering your view during this time.

Climate gauges are regularly erroneous over multi day ahead of time, so check again 24 hours before the station is expected to get a more accurate prediction.

 

Observing the space station.

 

Figuring out where to look.

 

Discover the position of the space station on a satellite graph. Allude to the space station appearances outline you found in the last area.

It ought to have a section marked with one of the accompanying: “where to look,” “appearance” “azimuth,” or “Az.” Look at the substance of this segment to discover the general territory of the sky the space station will show up in:

Look N(orth), E(ast), S(outh), or W(est) as per the letter or word recorded in that section. The graph may give you a progressively explicit guidance between one of these four bearings.

For example, NW (northwest) implies somewhere between North and West. NNW (north-northwest) implies somewhere between North and Northwest.

Find out about utilizing a compass on the off chance that you don’t know how to find directions using one.

 

Understanding the altitude.

 

Understand how high to look. The chart diagram ought to have a segment named “altitude,” with numbers recorded underneath as “degrees” (or the degree image, º).

Space experts separate the sky into numerous portions called degrees, so they can allude to a particular position in the sky. A place of 0º is at the skyline, 90º is straightforwardly over your head, and 45º is actually in the middle of 0º and 90º.

To discover harsh positions in the middle of these numbers, expand your arm completely before you and close your hand into a clenched hand.

The good ways from the skyline to the highest point of your first is generally 10º. On the off chance that you are searching for 20º, for instance, place your clench hand simply over the skyline, at that point place your other clench hand over the first.

The point over your subsequent clench hand is about 20º. Continue rotating clench hands to discover positions at higher degrees.

It might appear to be unusual that the space station all of a sudden “shows up” amidst the sky, rather than coming around the skyline.

This can happen on the grounds that the space station is just obvious when light from the sun is reflecting off it. At the point when the space station moves out of the world’s shadow, it all of a sudden ends up obvious.

It might likewise not be visible at dawn or dusk until it has moved sufficiently high in the sky to get away from the brilliant glow of the sun.

 

Observe.

 

Search for the space station at this position. At the time determined on the star diagram, search for the space station at the direction and altitude you found in the previous steps.

The space station normally resembles a moving speck or little, white or yellowish circle. It doesn’t squint or blaze over and over, yet in case you’re fortunate, it may flare more brilliant for a minute as daylight flickers on a particularly reflective surface.

 

It won’t have multi-shaded lights.

There won’t be a contrail.

Use a binocular or a telescope.

 

Binoculars make it simpler to see fainter objects. A 50mm binocular commonly gives you a chance to see brightness up to +10 on the size scale depicted in the past section.

However, it might be difficult to locate the space station with binoculars alone, since you can just observe a little piece of the sky through them.

 

It’s ideal to discover the station with your unaided eye, at that point lift binoculars to your eyes without turning away from the station.

 

A telescope enables you to see much fainter objects, however it very well may be practically difficult to discover the space station except if you have an accurate understanding of exactly where the telescope is pointing.

Utilize a comparative technique as portrayed for binoculars, however pick when the station will be unmistakable for a few minutes on the off chance that you are not experienced at utilizing your telescope.

 

Related questions.

I saw a trail following the ISS. What was it?

Shuttle waste dumps often look like shooting stars with curled tails. The ISS may have been doing the same thing too- dumping human waste overboard.