SPACE.com -- ISS Spotting: Space Station Offers Brilliant Morning Views

James Young and Gary Grasdalen captured these pictures during a 5-minute pass of the ISS over Southern California. The images were taken June 16 with a 24-inch telescope at JPL's Table Mountain Observatory in the Angeles National Forest.

Josef Huber and Tobias Lindeman made this picture of the ISS on July 27 with a 16-inch telescope at the Munich Public Star Observatory. The station's modules are labeled, and a computer-generated graphic of the ISS is added for comparison.


	ISS Spotting: Space Station Offers Brilliant Morning Views By Diana Jong Staff Writer posted: 07:00 am ET 05 September 2002

Now might be a good time to go out and watch a sunrise. Those who get up early -- or go to bed very late -- could be rewarded with an extra special view of the International Space Station (ISS), which is visible over most of the United States in the pre-dawn sky.

Unlike the Sun and most other celestial objects, the ISSwon't appear at one end of the horizon and travel to the other. Instead, for about the next week, the ISS will seem to materialize like a supernova near Saturn in the middle of the sky and travel eastward before disappearing into the growing sunlight.

And unlike true celestial objects, the ISS moves more quickly -- much like any human-produced satellite.

The ISS does not emit enough light to be visible from Earth,but is visible to the naked eye because it reflects sunlight. The current orientation of the spacecraft and Sun is what creates this uniquely brilliant view of the orbiting outpost, scientists say.

To the unaided eye, the station will look like other satellites -- a bright point of light.

With a good-sized amateur telescope, however, an observer can make out the station's solar arrays. Each measures more than 100 feet, adding up to a wingspan greater than that of a 747 jumbo jet.

The ISS passes over every continent except Antarctica, but people who live at higher than 60 degrees latitude, north or south, cannot see the station because of its orbital path.

The first two modules of the station were launched andjoined in 1998. The first crew arrivedin 2000. Currently, American astronaut Peggy Whitson is on board with Russian cosmonauts Valery Korzun and Sergei Treschev, circling the Earth every 90 minutes at over 17,000 mph. When it is directly overhead, it is about 400 kilometers (250 miles) high.

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Munich Public Star Observatory

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