Have you ever wanted to be an astronaut?
Okay, okay. Roll your eyes if you want, but seriously. When you were little, at least? When I was about nine, I went through a stage where I was certain that would be my vocation when I grew up. Sailing around the Earth with the stars, conducting brilliant experiments on board the International Space Station. But I digress. Anyway, the point is, NASA has an awesome service that lets you do the next-best thing: see an astronaut in space. Not personally. But you can at least see the ISS, which has 3 people on board right now.
How do you do it? Go visit spotthestation.nasa.gov. There, you can plunk in your location for a list of upcoming times when the ISS will be crossing your sky. Or, you can sign up to receive free email or text alerts whenever a flyby will be visible from your location. You’ll be told the time, date, direction to look, and duration of the flyby. When you find it, the ISS looks like a large, bright, fast-moving plane gliding effortlessly across the sky. It’s mesmerizing.
Oh, one more thing. You’ll also be told the station’s distance above the horizon (in degrees) when it appears, reaches its maximum height, and then disappears. This is just to help you find it. Not sure how to measure degrees? Here’s one way to do it. Clench your fist and extend it at arm’s length. Measured against the sky’s dome, your fist represents about 10 degrees. Of course, this is just an approximation, but it’ll get you relatively close. And, really, the ISS is so bright, you’ll probably have trouble missing it. Just make sure you’re outside at the predicted time, and you’ll see it.
I’ve been getting the email notifications for almost a year now. One morning in November when the ISS was going over, I took my little six-year-old brother outside to see it. We watched it break out from a group of clouds, swinging majestically across the sky’s dome. My brother looked at me in awe and asked, “There’s people on that?!” Yup, buddy. Real people. Pretty cool, when you really think about it. 😉
