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Forecast is good for tonight, Tuesday, with some clear periods... but what do they know!

So it is 10:16 to 10:21 and again at 11:51 to 11:55. Although higher in the sky just before midnight, the Space Station will disappear sooner into the shadows of the night as it travels east (at 17,000 mph and an altitude of about 200 miles)

Just in case anyone was wondering, this is a naked eye job, easily, very easily seen, being really bright and moving so much faster than any aeroplane at altitude. If you can catch it with a telescope, or binoculars, or even a zoom lens on a camera, it will be possible to make out the shape of the space station which, when I last looked, was a sort of H shape, but as they keep adding bits to it, the shape probably changes.

OK, so it is only a blob of light travelling fast across the sky, but when you know what you are looking at, and the speed it is doing, it does give rise to a little mind-boggling!

Thursday's 11:06 pass was very clear.

What struck me as the ISS went over was just how many aircraft there are overhead at any one time. During the day, if they are not vapour-trailing, they are virtually invisible if at any height, but at night with their nav lights flashing away, it is disturbing to see just how many there are. Tonight I counted eight aircraft in the eastern sector of the sky, and that included only one inbound to Heathrow!

It seems greedy to hope for another clear night at 9:57 on Friday, but it is one of the longest passes, at a reasonable time in the evening, so I hope it is visible.

Well, let's hope they knew about it because they were reading our forum!

Tonight Friday might be OK, but weatherman seems to think there might be thorms around.

EDIT: Here is an afterthought...

Satellite image of cloud over UK

and

Radar image of rainfall over UK

The above radar images are updated every half an hour, but it is possible to predict what might happen by running the sequence of images from the previous six hours. Similarly, the satellite cloud cover images feature the last 24 hours and can give a clue as to what to expect.

Last night, Saturday, was too cloudy for a sighting so here are a couple of other chances this coming week.
The information is listed as:
Date - Time BST - Duration in mins - Elevation in sky - First sighting - Last sighting.


Sun Jul 27/10:49 PM____4____75°____10° above W____26° above ESE

Mon Jul 28/09:41 PM____4____85°____25° above W____11° above E (virtually overhead)

Mon Jul 28/11:15 PM____3____42°____10° above W____41° above S

Tue Jul 29/10:06 PM____5____72°____16° above W____13° above ESE

Some more sightings coming up in the evenings. The timings and where to look are below. The information is in the order

Date ___ Time ___ Duration in mins ___ Max. elevation in degrees from horizon ___ Appears ___ Disappears.

So Thursday 25th at 7.55pm the flyover will last 4 minutes, at a maximum elevation of 60° from the horizon, first appearing 13° above west south west (roughly in the direction of Bracknell from Windsor) and will disappear 20° above due East (roughly Heathrow from Windsor). It can't be seen any lower as the Space Station is in darkness.

Thu Sep 25/07:55 PM ___ 4 ___ 61 ___ 13 above WSW ___ 20 above E
Thu Sep 25/09:30 PM ___ < 1 ___ 20 ___ 13 above W ___ 20 above W
Fri Sep 26/08:22 PM ___ 2 ___ 87 ___ 25 above W ___ 44 above E
Fri Sep 26/09:56 PM ___ < 1 ___ 10 ___ 10 above W ___ 10 above W
Sat Sep 27/07:17 PM ___ 1 ___ 25 ___ 25 above E ___ 10 above E
Sat Sep 27/08:49 PM ___ 1 ___ 55 ___ 25 above W ___ 55 above W
Sun Sep 28/07:41 PM ___ 3 ___ 86 ___ 41 above W ___ 17 above E
Sun Sep 28/09:15 PM ___ < 1 ___ 25 ___ 20 above W ___ 25 above W
Mon Sep 29/08:07 PM ___ 2 ___ 85 32 above W ___ 34 above E
Mon Sep 29/09:40 PM ___ < 1 ___ 10 10 above W ___ 10 above W
Tue Sep 30/08:33 PM ___ 1 ___ 66 ___ 25 above W ___ 66 above SW
Wed Oct 01/07:24 PM ___ 3 ___ 86 ___ 41 above W ___ 13 above E
Wed Oct 01/08:59 PM ___ < 1 ___ 26 ___ 18 above W ___ 26 above WSW
Thu Oct 02/07:51 PM ___ 2 ___ 66 ___ 39 above W ___ 26 above ESE
Thu Oct 02/09:25 PM ___ < 1 ___ 10 ___ 10 above W ___ 10 above W
Fri Oct 03/08:18 PM ___ 2 ___ 35 ___ 21 above WSW ___ 31 above S

Saturday's pass at 8.49 was again in clear skies but the ISS disappeared when almost overhead into the night.
Sunday's at 7.41pm should be a good one if the skies are clear. Best part of three minutes in view and directly overhead.

Edit- Indeed it was, speeding across a 'gin clear' sky. Weather seems suspect for the next few days at least so maybe Wednesday, potentially the next good one at 7.24pm, might not be visible.

The above link lists sighting opportunities coming up in the near future. There will be a number before the end of November, this time in the early evening, but the link may only feature a couple of sightings at first but will be updated nearer the time.

Do let us know here if you catch a sighting.

Fairly good opportunity tonight, Wednesday 20th. Let's hope for clear skies.

Wed May 20
09:58 PM
Duration 5 minutes
Elevation 75 degrees
Arrives 16 degrees above W
Disappears 10 degrees above ESE