Tech brief

How to See the Space Station From Your Backyard This Week

By , Tech Cheat Codes Team

Published 3 min read

Photo: a thin bright streak of the International Space Station crossing a deep blue night sky above the top of an evergreen tree strung with warm white lights.
Image: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Somebody has been living aboard the International Space Station every day since Nov. 2, 2000, when the first long-term crew floated in. Monday marks 26 years, and you can see the place with your own eyes, no telescope required.

The station is visible for the same reason the Moon is: it reflects sunlight. It circles Earth about every 90 minutes at roughly 17,500 mph, so it crosses your sky fast, and it's too dim to spot in daylight. Sightings happen in the few hours around sunrise or sunset, when the ground is dark but the station is still lit by the Sun.

NASA's free Spot the Station tool tells you exactly when. On the Spot the Station website, pick View Sightings by City. The official Spot the Station app, free on iPhone and Android with no in-app purchases or subscriptions, sends a push notification before each visible pass for the location you choose, with the date, time, duration and visibility. You can adjust when the alerts arrive. Clocks went back Sunday, and the app handles that on its own, so every time it lists is local.

Each sighting comes with a few numbers. Time is when it starts. Above the Horizon is how long you'll see it. Maximum Height is measured in degrees, where the horizon is 0 and straight overhead is 90. Appears and Disappears are compass directions, so you know which way to face and where to watch it leave.

Look for a very bright star or an airplane gliding steadily across the sky, except this one has no flashing lights and doesn't change direction. It also moves much faster than a plane, which cruises around 600 mph. On short passes the station can slide into Earth's shadow and fade out before it reaches the far horizon.

A few things help. Twilight or night gives the best view. Stand somewhere open, away from tall buildings and trees, because anything in the way blocks it, and a pass that stays low in the sky is the easiest to lose behind a roofline. The app also has an AR view that overlays the station's path on your phone's camera, though it needs a phone with a gyroscope or motion sensor, and older or budget phones may not have one. If you live in Alaska or anywhere else north of 51.6 degrees latitude, the station doesn't pass directly overhead, and the app may not flag every pass. The Next Sighting(s) List on its home screen shows all of them.

We told the story of the first crew's arrival, down to the sign on the toilet, in yesterday's feature.

NASA puts the range at anywhere from one visible pass a month to several a week, and the app will tell you which kind of week this is.

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