International Space Station to make several appearances in Hawaii skies
NASA VIA AP
NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, the first all-female spacewalking team, exit the International Space Station on Oct. 18. The ISS will appear several times over Hawaii’s skies over the next few days.
The International Space Station will make some spectacular appearances in Hawaii skies, weather permitting, over the next several days.
Early Friday, the space station will rise in the northwest just after 5:40 a.m. and arc across the top of the sky. On its way up, it will pass to the right of the bright star Capella and the constellation Gemini.
The moon, just past full, will perch near the bottom part of Gemini and above the constellation Orion, easily spotted by the three stars in his belt.
The space station will then descend toward the southeastern horizon, or toward Diamond Head if you live in town, and then blink out at around 5:45 a.m.
On Sunday, just after 7 p.m., the space station will rise in the southwest, just to the left of three planets in alignment – Saturn, Jupiter and Venus, all about to set in the west. You need a clear view of the horizon to see this.
It will head toward the top of the sky and then pass through the Great Square of Pegasus, which is actually not a square but still distinctive. The station then will disappear into the Earth’s shadow just past 7:04 p.m.
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At 6:12 p.m. Monday, the planets again will be aligned as the space station rises in the south-southwest. It will move to the left, rising to maybe a third of the way up the sky, before blinking out in the northeast about 6:18 p.m.
Finally, on Wednesday, the space station will rise at 6:12 p.m. just under Venus in the southwest. It will move to the right, passing under the bright star Vega. Then it will pass above the North Star before setting in the northeast at about 6:18 p.m.
The space station is visible before dawn and after sunset when it is illuminated by the sun against the darker sky. Its altitude varies, but is typically about 250 miles up, traveling at 17,000 mph.
Aboard are Americans Dr. Drew Morgan, Jessica Meir and Christina Koch; Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Skripochka, and Italian Luca Parmitano. Koch and Meir made history last month as the first all-female spacewalking team as they made repairs to the station’s solar power network.
