Up In The Sky - It's a Bird, It's a Plane.

Just something else to get you to go outside on a cold night. NASA's website for International Space Station viewing.  On the left side of the screen, it asks you for your country of viewing. That would be the US for most of you, but my blog stats show that 10 people from the Netherlands and 5 from Russia have viewed this blog. (Probably either high or drunk on vodka.) On the next screen you click on your state, then find the town closest to you on the next screen.Here are the next three sightings for my area in Illinois:   

 Sun Feb 12/07:07 PM    2      38      10 above SW      38 above SSW

 Mon Feb 13/06:10 PM    4     29     10 above SSW    18 above E 

 Mon Feb 13/07:47 PM  < 1    17     17 above W        17 above W

The first number in each row (after the date and time) is the duration of the sighting. For these three instances, they are 2, 4, and less than 1 minute, so I won't have to stand outside for very long. The next number is the elevation; 90 (degrees) would be directly overhead. From the Office of Naval Research website:     

If you make a fist and extend your arm straight out in front of you, your fist measures about 10° across your knuckles. Now find the object whose height you want to measure. Starting with the bottom of your fist on the horizon, stack your fists one on top of the other until you reach the object. If it took 4 fists, the object's altitude is 40°. Four and a half fists equal 45°. For smaller distances, you can use the knuckles on your index finger. Between your fingertip and first knuckle equals about 2° between your first and second knuckles equals about 3° and between your second knuckle and last knuckle equals about 4°.

       

 

The next set of numbers tells you where to look for the station to come into view. For example, on my Sunday list above it says 10 above SW. So I will be looking at 10 degrees (one fist) above the horizon towards the South West and if I see it come into view I can follow it until it disappears 38 degrees above the horizon South South West (half way between South and Southwest). The typical path the station travels is shown on the diagram below. The website suggests viewing through binoculars to get a better look at the spacecraft.  

So, good luck. Hope you get a chance to see the space station as it races overhead. We'll leave the light on for you.