With its solar panels unfurled the International Space Station has become the third-brightest object in the nighttime sky, just behind the Moon and Jupiter. That’s pretty good company! The ISS is often visible to the naked eye in the evening or before dawn, when you’re in the dark and it’s in a position to still be bathed in light.
NASA, the federal government’s most media-savvy agency, has easy tracking tools online to make sure you know where to look for the station. Though all you’re seeing is a bright speck of light you’ll be impressed. I’ve pointed out the ISS and Space Shuttle to casual viewers a few times. It has never disappointed.
Some people just aren’t satisfied with naked eye observation. With a 10-inch Newtonian telescope manually tracked using a 6-by-30 viewfinder, Ralf Vandebergh of Maastricht, Netherlands was able to photograph the International Space Station, with the Space Shuttle docked, as it passed overhead!
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