International Space Station (ISS) and shuttle only visible for a few minutes

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Charles Perry
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What appears to be a bright star, that is literally moving in the sky the last few nights, has, no doubt, had more than a few people wondering whether they were seeing an unidentified flying object.

What they are seeing is not a UFO or even a shooting star, says. Dr. Robert Hawkes, a physics and astronomy professor at Mount Allison University.

He said they are seeing the International Space Station (ISS) and shuttle which will remain visible through the spring and summer.

Danielle St-Jean of Montreal, a representative for the Canadian Space Agency, said the STS-119 is the current NASA space shuttle mission to the space station and is being flown there by the space shuttle Discovery.

The shuttle will deliver and assemble the fourth starboard, integrated truss segment and the fourth set of solar arrays and batteries to the station, said St-Jean. She said the launch took place on the weekend.

Hawkes said the space station, located about 350 kilometres (217 miles) above the Earth's surface, is bright enough that people can easily see it with the naked eye. "It is as bright as the brightest stars and a little brighter than some of them," he said.

It would not appear much different in the sky than Jupiter would most the time, said the Mount Allison professor.

At present, the space station is doing 15.7 orbits every day, each lasting about 90 minutes, said Hawkes. He said most of the orbits, however, would not be visible from our location in the world, but you will get to see two of them on most days over the next several weeks.

It scoots across the sky pretty fast, says the Mount Allison professor, being visible for only a few minutes each time.

For instance, he said it will be visible about 9:11 tonight, passing from low in the western sky and ending about one-third of the way up in the northern sky about 9:13 p.m. "You can easily see the movement," he added.

Tomorrow night, St-Jean said there will be two opportunities to view the space station and shuttle, both lasting a few minutes. At 8:02 p.m., she said it will be 25 degrees above west southwest in the sky and end up at up 39 degrees above east north east a few minutes later; and at 9:38 p.m., the ISS will be visible 23 degrees above northwest and pass onto 27 degrees above north-northwest before leaving our view.

St-Jean said the ISS will appear even flashier in the sky as the new panels are installed. She said you will see more of the space station than the shuttle as the latter is only an attachment to it.

Hawkes said the international space station is about 93 metres (305 feet) one way and 73 metres (240 feet) the other, meaning it is a "pretty big object" in our sky. So people technically can get pictures of its structure, he said.

But because it is moving so rapidly, he said it is not something most people, without highly sophisticated equipment, are going to be able to do. But almost no one should have any problem seeing it.

n Charles Perry's Weather appears daily.