I arrive very early in the chosen area because I still have to find a suitable spot, a place where I've never been and where I will probably never go again.
I also have to consult the weather forecast during the days before the event, to assess the probability of a clear sky and determine the best area to go (a transit line is very narrow but very long). How do you prepare to capture an image of the ISS?įirst, I use to find out where and when transits are visible within a radius of several hundreds of km around my home. His photographs have been featured in publications around the world and he has written three books The New Atlas of the Moon with Serge Brunier (Firefly), Astrophotographie (Eyrolles), translated in English, German and Spanish and Les Secrets de l'Astrophotographie (Eyrolles). Thierry Legault is a French astrophotographer and author. If you would like to have a go at photographing the orbiting observatory, consider our best cameras for astrophotography and the best lenses for astrophotography. To the ground observer, the ISS passing overhead will appear as a bright point of light moving quickly across the sky, similar to a plane but brighter and without the flashing lights. With its location and movement tracked with great accuracy as well as night sky alerts from NASA's Spot the Station website, it's perhaps one of the easiest objects to spot in the night sky.īudding astrophotographers from around the world have caught beautiful long-exposure photographs that show the ISS appearing to streak across the sky. The ISS makes for a fun and interesting observing target in the night sky.
(Image credit: Alan Dyer/Stocktrek Images via Getty Images)
This photograph taken in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada shows the ISS making a bright pass, along with the aurora borealis. Long exposure photographs can capture the ISS appearing to streak across the night sky. The informative map shows where the ISS is as well as its speed and altitude. If you would like to know where the space station is right now, ESA's live map has got you covered. Though it's worth noting you will only get NASA's Spot the Station alerts when the ISS is passing over with a maximum height of at least 40 degrees, this is because the ISS will be visible above most landscapes at this height. You can even sign up for email or text alerts for when the space station is flying over so you'll never miss a viewing opportunity again. In addition, NASA's Spot the Station website is a great place to explore ISS sighting opportunities in your area. It will tell you the time of the ISS flyover along with how long it is visible, the maximum height it will reach in the sky and which direction it will appear and disappear from your field of view. Simply pop in the location you wish to know for ISS sighting opportunities and let the widget work its magic.
NASA's spot the station widget (below) is a great tool for quickly finding out upcoming ISS viewing opportunities. Viewing opportunities of the ISS can vary between one sighting a month to several a week, depending on your location and the orbit of the ISS. It isn't bright enough to be seen in the middle of the day and the best time to view the ISS is either at dawn or dusk. The ISS is only visible because it reflects sunlight. As the ISS orbits with an inclination of 51.6 degrees, if you live beyond 51.6 degrees north or south of the equator the ISS will never appear directly overhead. The ISS zips around Earth at an average speed of 17,500 mph ( 28,000 km/h), completing 16 orbits per day. "The International Space Station's trajectory passes over more than 90% of Earth's population," according to a statement from NASA.
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