What a Double Header – Seeing the Aurora Borealis and the Space Station on the Same Night We had an amazing coincidence occur earlier this week when, on the night of 11 May 2024, as we were waiting for the Aurora Borealis to appear, the International Space Station (ISS) streaked directly overhead. The largest man-made object in space, the ISS is 356 feet (109 meters) end-to-end, one yard shy of the full length of an American football field including the end zones. The solar array wingspan (356 feet, 109 meters) is longer than the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the Airbus A380 (262 feet, 80 meters). In 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets at a speed of 17,100 mph (4.76 miles/second). Here’s a short video of what the ISS orbit looks like as it passes 248 miles above the Earth. Note that the highlighted “cone” shows the locations that can see the ISS as it passes by. Because of its size, and the sun’s rays reflecting off its metal hull and solar panels, the ISS is very visible against the night sky – if you know when and where to look for it. Luckily, we knew that the ISS would be passing overhead that night, so we noted the compass directions that it would come from and head off to, and were prepared to look for it at the scheduled orbital pass time. Here’s a time sequence photo montage of the ISS passing overhead during the 6 minutes and 34 seconds that it was visible to us. We even captured a short video of the ISS streaking through the night sky. (click on the arrows to expand the video to full screen since the ISS was shot against the dark night sky)
Although we initially headed out for a chance to see the Aurora Borealis, the fact that we saw both the Northern Lights and the ISS passing overhead made for an unforgettable night.
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