The Space Shuttle Atlantis successfully docked with the International Space Station today – and you can see them fly overhead for yourself. The pair are astonishingly bright – all you need to do to see them is to look up at the right time!
You can see the space station rising in the West, flying over the South, before heading towards the East. It crosses the entire night sky in about 5 minutes. Remember – if it flashes, it’s an aircraft, but if it has a constant brightness, then you are looking at a satellite. To confirm that you have seen a satellite, keep watching to see if it suddenly disappears into the shadow of the Earth.
The following table gives the (approximate) times (within 1-2 minutes) when the International Space Station is flying over the UK for the next week.
10 Feb, 18:34-18:38 GMT, peak 74° high
11 Feb, 17:20-17:25 GMT, peak 85° high
11 Feb, 18:55-18:58 GMT, peak 44° high
12 Feb, 17:40-17:46 GMT, peak 78° high
12 Feb, 19:15-19:18 GMT, peak 23° high
13 Feb, 18:01-18:06 GMT, peak 48° high
14 Feb, 18:21-18:26 GMT, peak 25° high
16 Feb, 17:27-17:32 GMT, peak 28° high
If you live outside the UK, see Heavens-above.com for times when the space station can be seen flying over your location.
Amateur astrophotographers in Europe have made ample use of the current viewing ‘season’ and taken many excellent hi-res images of the ISS and Atlantis!
Comment by Daniel Fischer 11 February 2008 @ 1:49 pm
just saw it with my little girl – we looked up and it whizzed across right in front of us – a solid light and faster than a plane – amazing!
Comment by upthebub 11 February 2008 @ 8:17 pm
Saw it twice in 1 day! Thanks to good weather last week! First time round 17:30 from the roof at work; went right across the sky. Next time home from the balcony it was about 19:15 went half way across the sky and turned red while entering earths shadow looked very nice, another pass in 30min and no cloud in the sky!
Comment by Tom 16 February 2008 @ 6:08 pm
I saw this space shuttle last week at 22.00 hrs.Flying over east dorset west to east
Comment by frank 16 May 2010 @ 6:38 pm
I live in Harrogate in North Yorkshire (Latitude: 53.9925; Longitude: -1.54) Are you able to confirm that I was able to see the ISS track across the sky at 22:59. Bright red, not a plane (I watch planes alot). Suddenly it flickered and shimmered and then the light disappeared and for a brief moment before it crossed into the night sky I could see a dark object. I am as sure as I can be that it was the ISS I just would like some sort of confirmation.
Comment by Richard Peck 22 June 2010 @ 10:49 am
I’ve just become fascinated looking up at the sky after using google sky map. I couldnt find the space station in the app so I thought I would google it and found this post…shame I am over 3 years late for these co-ordinates. If only it was plotted in the app! or maybe that takes away the fun of looking.
Comment by Brian 15 June 2011 @ 9:59 pm