BaitShack said:

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This is the site that I use. Are yall's any better?

https://heavens-above.com/?lat=30.628&lng=-96.3344&loc=College+Station&alt=104&tz=CST

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I've used that one before. There is also CalSky.com which I use for notifications. A small issue I have found with CalSky is they usually send out notifications late in the evening for the next day passes, which can be pretty short notice for early morning passes. I'm not usually up that early anyway, but some people might be and miss it.

Fairly recently I went ahead and signed up for Spot the Station by NASA. They will send you a text message right to your phone, and has worked pretty well. I've been off the grid in Big Bend until today, and I did get a text yesterday reminding me of the pass last night. We were able to see the ISS, as well as two other satellites.

I got some pretty good viewing tonight between cloud cover and lightning.

Nice pass. The clouds broke just in time.

Agreed...thought it would be a washout earlier but was actually pretty good.

Time: Sun Aug 12 8:46 PM, Visible: 4 min, Max Height: 50, Appears: 39 above W, Disappears: 11 above SSE

dubi said:

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Time: Sun Aug 12 8:46 PM, Visible: 4 min, Max Height: 50, Appears: 39 above W, Disappears: 11 above SSE

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Should be a decent pass at magnitude -3.2. Hopefully clouds won't interfere, especially since the Perseid meteor shower is also tonight.

time: Mon Aug 27 6:02 AM, Visible: 4 min, Max Height: 44, Appears: 11 above SSW, Disappears: 37 above E

Time: Wed Aug 29 5:56 AM, Visible: 4 min, Max Height: 52, Appears: 27 above WSW, Disappears: 12 above NNE

Time: Wed Sep 19 5:34 AM, Visible: 2 min, Max Height: 44, Appears: 44 above SE, Disappears: 10 above SE

Another nice pass coming up tonight. Appears around 20:21 in the SW, 20:26 at it's peak of 69 degrees and -3.7mag, then disappears around 20:29 in the NE. So a pretty bright appearance, weather permitting of course. The forecast isn't particularly promising for clear skies, however.

Time: Fri Oct 12 8:00 PM, Visible: 4 min, Max Height: 67, Appears: 11 above NW, Disappears: 33 above ESE

dubi said:

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Time: Fri Oct 12 8:00 PM, Visible: 4 min, Max Height: 67, Appears: 11 above NW, Disappears: 33 above ESE

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Tonight's pass will be a nice bright one at magnitude -4.2. Almost as bright as it can be.

Time: Thu Oct 25 7:02 AM, Visible: 6 min, Max Height: 72, Appears: 10 above SW, Disappears: 10 above NE

Time: Fri Oct 26 6:11 AM, Visible: 5 min, Max Height: 45, Appears: 19 above SSW, Disappears: 10 above ENE

There's a couple of decent passes coming up for you early risers the next couple of days.

The first is tomorrow, Saturday morning starting around 6:56AM in the west. It peaks around 6:58 in the NW, and disappears around 7:01 in the NNE. It will remain pretty low in the sky, only appearing 25 degrees above the horizon at peak altitude. So you will need a fairy clear view to the horizon for best viewing.

The next pass is Sunday morning starting around 6:07AM in the north, which is also its peak altitude of 39 degrees, and disappears around 6:09 in the NE. It will pass slightly higher in the sky compared to Saturday. This one could be a little interesting, since it should suddenly brighten as the ISS comes out of Earths shadow into almost full sunlight rapidly, as opposed to gradually brightening from the horizon as normally seen.

Time: Thu Nov 15 5:38 AM, Visible: 3 min, Max Height: 57, Appears: 24 above NNW, Disappears: 30 above ESE

Time: Sat Nov 17 5:32 AM, Visible: 3 min, Max Height: 40, Appears: 40 above SW, Disappears: 10 above SSE

Zoomed right by! Didn't take long.

Starting on Monday the 19th, the ISS starts a run of visibility every evening for seven days. Some evenings are not great passes, such as the first one on Monday and the next on Tuesday. Wednesday will be a good one, as will Friday. Mag denotes the brightness with larger negative numbers being the brightest.

Monday the 19th-Reaches altitude 10 18:46:25, Az.164 (SSE) Mag-1.1 Enters shadow 18:47:10 Alt. 13 Az.152 (SSE)

Tuesday the 20th-Reaches altitude 10 19:29:15 Az.230 (SW) Mag-0.3 Enters shadow 19:30:27 Alt. 21 Az.234 (SW)

Wednesday the 21st-Reaches altitude 10 18:37:15 Az.206 (SSW) Mag-0.5 Maximum altitude 18:40:22 Alt.46 Az.131 (SE) Mag-3.5 Enters shadow 18:40:57 Alt.41 Az.97 (E)

Thursday the 22nd-Reaches altitude 10 19:21:59 Az.264 (W) Mag0.0 Enters shadow 19:24:02 Alt.22 Az.301 (WNW) Mag-1.6

Friday the 23rd-Reaches altitude 10 18:29:17 Az.239 (WSW) Mag0.3 Maximum altitude 18:32:26 Alt.50 Az.316 (NW) Mag-3.2 Enters shadow 18:34:20 Alt.21 Az.25 (NNE) Mag-2.3

Saturday the 24th-Reaches altitude 10 19:16:04 Az.310 (NW) Mag-0.5 Maximum altitude 19:17:02 11 Az.327 (NNW) Mag-0.9 Enters shadow 19:17:12 Alt.11 Az.330 (NNW) Mag-0.9

Sunday the 25th-Reaches altitude 10 18:22:11 Az.274 (W) Mag0.2 Maximum altitude 18:24:38 19 Az.322 (NW) Mag-1.6 Drops below altitude 10 18:27:04 Az.11 (N) Mag-1.3

You are now permanently in charge of updating this thread!

I just prefer to do updates for evening passes when normal people are awake!

I saw where this string of daily evening passes was coming up and thought it would be easier to consolidate them all.

I agree.

I am notified via email at the very last second which is useless.

If the clouds stay at bay this evening, it might be a good pass.

Great view tonight. Thanks!

It was awesome tonight. Thanks for the detailed info. Seeing it always gives me goosebumps. Even my 7yo mouthed "WOW" before he tried to play it off as no big deal.

Where are our updates?


Time: Thu Dec 13 6:53 PM, Visible: 5 min, Max Height: 42, Appears: 10 above WNW, Disappears: 16 above SSE

dubi said:

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Where are our updates?


Time: Thu Dec 13 6:53 PM, Visible: 5 min, Max Height: 42, Appears: 10 above WNW, Disappears: 16 above SSE

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I was getting to it. Wow, someone's been testy lately!

So the next few days there is another string of decent flyovers for the B/CS area. Here is the info on upcoming passes. Tonight and especially tomorrow night will be the best/brightest, weather permitting of course. The pass on the 15th will be just about not worth it, staying very low on the horizon.

Date Brightness Start of visibility Highest point End of visibility
--------------------------Time Direction Time Altitude Time Direction

12/13 -2.6 -----------18:54 WNW 18:57 42 deg 18:59 SSE

12/14 -3.9 -----------18:02 NW 18:05 76 deg 18:08 SE

12/15 -0.6 -----------18:47 W 18:49 14 deg 18:50 SSW

12/16 -1.6 -----------17:54 SSW 17:57 31 deg 18:00 SSE

Okay, about to have a few days of passes for all you early risers out there! The pass Christmas Eve morning should be an especially good one, passing nearly directly overhead and being very bright.


Date Brightness -------Start of visibility Highest point End of visibility
-------------------------------Time Direction Time Altitude --Time Direction

12/22 -1.4 ----------------06:09 S -------- 06:12 26 deg ----06:15 ENE

12/23 -0.5 ----------------05:19 SSE ------05:20 12 deg ----05:21 ESE

12/24 -3.9 ----------------06:02 SW -------06:04 86 deg ----06:07 NE

12/25 -1.4 ----------------05:13 E ----------05:13 23 deg ----05:15 ENE

12/25 -2.1 ----------------06:46 WNW ----06:48 17 deg ----06:50 N

12/26 -2.4 ----------------05:57 N ----------05:57 25 deg ----05:59 NNE

Got a few days of passes coming up again for you early risers mostly. The ones for the 13th and 14th are the best, with the 11th, 15th and 16th probably pretty decent. I think I'll use a screenshot this time for the info, much easier than my data entry skills! Let me know if you have any questions.

New group of passes coming up for the evening folks. The only decent evenings look like the 19th through the 22nd.

Got a few evenings coming up with some visible passes starting on the 7th. The 9th and 10th will be the best during this run.

A run of early morning passes coming up. Quite a few of them look like pretty good ones this time. Weather permitting, of course.