It’s not a UFO — it’s the International Space Station!
How to see the ISS from your backyard (and don’t forget to wave)
Though I consider myself to be a proud resident of the greatest city in the world, I’ve spent much of the pandemic about two hours west in the middle of the New Jersey woods. While growing up in this area I spent my teenage years eagerly anticipating adulthood when I could venture out of the countryside — but with all the golden wisdom adulthood has bestowed upon me, I’ve now come to realize that I may have taken the starry qualities of my hometown for granted. Looking up in the middle of a clear summer night is an astronomy dream. In one corner there is the big dipper, to the right is the moon and Mars, then Saturn and Jupiter paired together getting closer and closer as the months go on. I spent late summer nights outside with my cat at my feet, staring up at the Milky Way. I’ll admit the view doesn’t exactly rival the crystal clear galaxy views I’ve seen in Zion National Park or in the middle of Iceland, but 80% of Americans cannot see stars due to light pollution. To be just 60 miles away from New York City and still see what I can see — I’m not complaining. Though even when I returned to New York City, I was pleasantly shocked to find that my newfound ability to track the ISS was unbothered by the bright city that never sleeps.
The ISS is easy to identify if you know what you’re looking for, when to look, and in what direction. It’s traveling 17,500 miles per hour so you only have a minute or two to spot it and wave. The size of a football field, it reflects a large amount of sunlight and simply looks like a glowing dot speeding across the night sky. Sometimes the shape of the station with it’s solar panel ends extending outward is even recognizable in its glow— but don’t be mistaken if you see any sign of red or green blinking lights. That my friends is not the International Space Station, it is an airplane.
I spent my summer nights running outside at notification of an ISS flyover and waving up to the glowing orb buzzing by the sky; fully enthralled knowing that it isn’t just an orbiting scrap of metal but is actually the beloved home of heroic astronauts who risked their lives to launch there months before.
When To Look
NASA.gov has a website dedicated to sharing ISS location data to the public — it should be your first stop to familiarizing yourself with tracking the ISS. Go to Spot The Station | NASA and enter your city and town. If you are close to a documented location where the ISS is tracked, you will see blue pins on the map. Select the one closest to you and click “view sighting opportunities”.
Now you are able to get an idea of the upcoming days and times in which the ISS will be visible above your horizon line — the date/time and visible time period are your key data points. This NASA website typically projects beyond a two week period so there is a chance that you may not see it depending on it’s current orbit. The ISS doesn’t pass by every day at all times of the year due to variations in its orbital path and height, so don’t go outside every day expecting to see it in the same place. Living in the middle of the woods in elevation, I quickly learned that I couldn’t actually see anything below 15 degrees due to the tree line blocking my view of the low sky. Now you may not want to sit there every night calculating what direction of your backyard points towards SSE or what a max height of 21 degrees actually looks like. Don’t worry, I didn’t either.
Where To Look
You are welcome to spend some time educating yourself on latitude degrees and compass directions, but in 2021 with the right mobile app, you can point your phone to the sky and it will tell you exactly what star, constellation, planet, moving satellite or rocket part you are looking at. It’s that simple. There are plenty of great astronomy mobile apps out there and you can search for various reviews online. I personally use Night Sky (many also enjoy Star Walk) because of its visually appealing graphic design and the variety of objects it tracks.
Once I know about what time the ISS will be flying over me that night thanks to the NASA site, I go to my app and simply type ISS in the search bar, point my phone to the sky, and start moving around with the guided arrows until it’s pointing in the direction of the ISS in front of me and my eyes catch the golden dot moving by. You also have the capability to create alerts so that you get a phone notification 5 minutes before an ISS flyby and can watch it creep up from the horizon line and arch across the sky. Whether you’re tacking the ISS or not, having an astronomy app on your phone will open your eyes to a whole new world of amateur stargazing — no longer will you be wondering what you’re looking at but have the power of data right at your finger tips.
There is nothing like a rocket launch to create excitement for space and the future of human exploration — yet there are just a few people around the world who can say they’ve ever witnessed the awe of a rocket launch. But right from your backyard, you can still feel the same sense of awe and wonder that only the cosmos can give. The ISS orbits the Earth every 90 minutes — every 90 minutes somebody, somewhere has a view of our brothers and sisters working in space. Give them a wave or some good vibes, if you will. At some point in your lifetime it may be you up there too.
Follow me at https://sfalcucci.medium.com/ for more space and STEM content and to hear about my upcoming experiences in the space and technology industry. Thanks to your support, I have recently been noted as a top writer in Space on Medium!
