2/16/17: Spot the Station Over Central Alabama Tonight!

The International Space Station will be making a pass through the sky over Alabama this evening and it will give you a great chance to see it!

Image courtesy SpotTheStation.NASA.gov

It will be visible to the naked eye and will look like a fast moving plane, only hundreds of miles higher and moving thousands of miles an hour faster.

For Birmingham, the station will make an appearance at 6:06 p.m., appearing first in the northwest sky and reaching a maximum height on the sky dome of 61 degrees before exiting to the east southeast. The visible period will be 6 minutes.

Sunset is at 5:33 p.m., so the ISS should be brightly lit by the sun just over the horizon.

All of Central Alabama will be able to see it. The further east you are, it will be slightly higher in the sky.

Get alerts from NASA by signing up at spotthestation.nasa.gov.

OH,,, AND ONE MORE THING:
When you’re looking at the sky tonight, look west, Venus will be at its greatest illuminate extent of the year, so it will be really bright. It actually will be slightly brighter on February 18th, but it will put on a brilliant show this evening as well. And if you look up and to the left of Venus, you will spot Mars!

Category: Hodgepodge, Spacey Stuff