How to find the International Space Station(ISS)?

I have always been fascinated by space, and the skies above me, so being able to spot a spaceship going over my head takes me back to my days of watching the space shuttle launch on the telly all those years ago. I have been even more fascinated with space since we had a British Astronaut live on the space station. I can now put together my love of space and photography with a very easy-to-spot presence in the sky. In the first instalment, I will go into more detail on how to locate the ISS, with further posts on how to photograph the ISS.

Hold on, what’s the ISS?

The ISS or the International Space station is a spacecraft positioned around 250km above the earth, built by a collaboration of many countries around the world. It is home to up to 11 astronauts who often live there for 6 months or more at a time. What makes the ISS easy to spot is that it’s visible with the naked eye, but using a camera or telescope you can see this in more detail. You can read more about the ISS on the NASA Website or on Wikipedia.

How to spot the ISS?

The ISS travels once around the earth every 90 minutes at around 28500 KMH or 17150 Mph, passing from west to east. The ISS does not pass over the same area or countries every day, so there are periods of time where you will be able to spot the ISS as this will not pass over where you live every day. The times of the passes also differ depending on the country you live in. Now you are probably thinking that this makes the ISS incredibly hard to spot, but fortunately, there are many tools, websites and apps out there that give you the times and positions of the passes.

Let’s talk about websites and apps.

The most accessible way to access the dates and times of the passes is using a website provided by NASA. I prefer to use a smartphone app such as Sky Guide on iPhone or Star Walk on Android. The benefit of using an app is that the phone’s inbuilt GPS can easily locate the position of the ISS making it easy to find, and the apps will provide notifications of when the ISS is going to pass over your head, so you should never miss a pass.

What to look out for?

The ISS is able to be seen due to the sun reflecting the light of the large solar panels that the ISS has, which means this can only be spotted in fading light or darkness. On a good clear day, the ISS can pass for 5 minutes or more overhead, which makes it easy to spot. The ISS can often be seen as a large white dot travelling across the sky. When you first spot the ISS it can be mistaken for aircraft, but as you’ll find it travels much faster than a plane and is much brighter. It is also easier to spot as all aircraft have marker lights of different colours, whereas the ISS is a single bright light. Once you see it the first time, you will know what to look at every time. It is very easy to spot.

I hope you find this post useful and help to spot the ISS more easily. Happy spotting! Be sure to tweet me if you spot it?