Greetings!

Clouds are expected to start breaking up -- giving way to mostly clear (partly cloudy) skies by around 8pm ... and much clearer later in the evening (e.g. 11pm).

The International Space Station will make a visible pass tonight at 8:32pm ending at 8:37pm (that's when it passes into Earth's shadows and will dim out and disappear). While I don't normally tell people about ISS passes... this one happens to come directly over the Zenith for those in this part of the state.

The chart below is flipped left-to-right such that the right side of the chart is West (not East as you might expect) and the left side is East. ?This is so if you printed it and held it overhead as you look at the sky it will appear correct. ?So the ISS actually rises in the NorthWest and heads toward the SouthEast.

Mars will be low in the sky rising in the East. ?Jupiter and Saturn are in the South. ?The ISS will be brighter than Mars … but not as bright as Jupiter.?

The diagonal line on the chart below shows the predicted path and the point where the line ends before reaching the horizon is the point where it is predicted to enter Earth’s shadow… it will gradually dim and seem to vanish. ?It has no visible external lights… the light we see is the reflection from sunlight on its massive solar panel array. ?(The solar panels are stretched out over an area roughly the size of a football field — which is why it appears so bright to us.)




If you've never seen the space station... it looks like a VERY bright star that moves rather slowly. ?

Hopefully the clouds are mostly cleared away as predicted.

Clear Skies,
Tim