macpuzlBy Chuck McPartlin
The International Space Station will be making some nice visible evening passes through Santa Barbara’s skies for the next week, weather permitting. Its orbit can vary, so to get the complete and most recent predictions, visit Heavens Above.
On Sunday, October 7, the space station will make a brief pop-up in the NNW between 8:39 and 8:40 PM PDT, vanishing in the Earth’s shadow as it reaches the junction of the bowl and the handle of the Big Dipper.
On Monday, it will appear at 7:48 PM in the NNW, and pass low across our mountain horizon from the bowl of the Big Dipper to below the bent W of Cassiopeia in the NNE, where it will disappear at 7:50 PM.
On Tuesday we’ll get two passes. At 6:57 PM, the ISS will rise in the N and pass very low across our mountain crests to set in the NE at 6:59 PM. It will reappear in the NW on its next orbit at 8:32 PM, and pop up to fade away near the end of the Big Dipper’s handle a minute later.
Wednesday’s pass should be pretty bright, starting at 7:40 PM in the NNW by the bowl of the Big Dipper, passing by Polaris, the North Star, then through the center of Cassiopeia to fade into Earth’s shadow at 7:43 PM in the ENE in Andromeda.
We’ll get two appearances again on Thursday, with the first rising in the NNW at 6:48 PM and tracing a path similar to Wednesday’s, but continuing below the Great Square of Pegasus and ending in dim Pisces at 6:53 PM in the E. Then it will show up again at 8:24 PM in the WNW, passing toward the south above bright orange Arcturus, and disappearing in the middle of Ophiuchus at 8:27 PM in the WSW.
On Friday, October 12, we’ll get the best pass of this sequence. The ISS will rise in the NW at 7:32 PM in dim Canes Venatici, the dogs chasing the Great Bear. It will pass high overhead, through the Keystone of Hercules, very close to brilliant Altair at the southern end of the Summer Triangle, and then above still-bright Mars, fading away in the SE at 7:38 PM, just before reaching Fomalhaut, the mouth of Piscis Austrinus. Fomalhaut is about 25 light years away, and hosts at least one exoplanet in a dusty circumstellar disk.
Saturday’s pass will start at 8:19 PM in the WSW, below Arcturus, and pass very low along our ocean horizon below the Moon, and set in the SW at 8:21 PM in Sagittarius.
The last pass on Sunday will rise at 7:25 PM in the WNW and pass by Arcturus, the Moon and Saturn, and set at 7:30 PM in the S below Mars
