ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and cosmonaut commander Oleg Novitsky were launched to the International Space Station yesterday at 20:20 GMT. They are now flying in the Soyuz MS-03 catching up with the Space Station and scheduled for docking at 22:00 on Saturday 19 November.
Track of International Space Station over Earth 19 November. Credits: n2yo/Google
Did you know you can see the International Space Station fly overhead when the conditions are right? Tomorrow morning early you should be able the Space Station from France and Northern Europe from 06:33 CET. It will appear low in the south-western sky as seen from Central Europe but Northern Spain and Southern France could see it high up. The Soyuz will be trailing the Space Station by about 18 minutes and its track over Earth will be more to the south so it will appear slightly lower in the sky.
Observers north of that the track in the image to the right could try to first spot the Space Station and check 18 minutes later for a similar light flying passed, but lower in the sky.
The Space Station looks like a very bright star or aircraft gliding through the sky. If you want to take a picture, use a tripod and set the shutter speed to a long exposure of up to a minute. The Station will always arrive from the west and will show up as a white streak in the photograph. A non-technical but in-depth blog entry with tips on how to spot and capture the International Space Station can be found on our Orion blog.
So put on a jacket, head outside, look up, wave and take a picture. We would love to see the results!
This image below was taken of the International Space Station flying with ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle closely behind in 2015. A gallery of pictures is available here.
This blog entry made with help from Gerhard Holtkamp and n2yo.com
Image taken by Twitter user @dk3wn “1815 UTC My last ever sight of #ATV5 over Germany – visible deviation of #ISS trajectory #ATV”
Discussion: 4 comments
Dorogoi Oleg, Thomas i Paggy,
Pozdravliaiu s udachnim pribitiem v ISS.
Boleem za Vas i v Holland.
Budu rasskazat o vas i publike v Space Expo by ESA-ESTEK.
S nailuchshimi pojelaniami,
obnimaiu vas <3
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