The International Space Station will put in a long and bright appearance over Hawaii on Sunday evening if the weather cooperates.
The space station will rise in the northwest at about 7 p.m. and head straight for the top of the sky. Halfway up, it will pass to the right of the bright star Vega in the constellation Lyra.
That will put it inside the so-called Summer Triangle, formed by Vega, Altair in the constellation Aquila, the eagle, and Deneb in Cygnus, the swan.
It will reach the zenith at 7:04 p.m. and drop to the southeast, blinking out of sight in Earth’s shadow at about 7:06 p.m. The space station will make another bright pass on the morning of Nov. 3.
It will rise in the southwest at 6:07 a.m. and pass between Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, and the constellation Orion, the hunter, recognizable by the three stars in his belt.
It will thread through Gemini and then descend toward the horizon, clipping the Big Dipper on the way. It will disappear at about 6:12 a.m.
There are four more reasons to get up early that day: Venus and Mars are close to each other above the eastern horizon, under Jupiter and a waning half moon. Mercury will also be above the eastern horizon, but barely.
The space station is 249 miles up and traveling at 17,150 mph. It is visible before dawn and after dusk when it reflects sunlight.
Aboard are two Americans, Scott Kelly and Dr. Kjell Lindgren; three Russians, Mikhail Kornienko, Sergey Volkov and Oleg Kononenko; and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui.
On Thursday, Kelly will set the record for the longest continuous stay aboard the space station by a U.S. astronaut, at 216 days. The old record of 215 days was set by Michael Lopez-Alegria in 2007.
There will also be two extremely bright satellite encounters next week.
At 5:59 a.m. Monday the Iridium-68 satellite will flash from sunlight about halfway up the northern sky — brighter even than Venus and Jupiter in the east. Just after 7:27 p.m. Wednesday, the Iridium-76 satellite will flare about a third of the way up the sky in the south-southeast.
Iridium satellites have large, shiny antennas that, when struck by sunlight, produce some of the brightest lights in the sky.
For instance, Venus shines at a magnitude of minus 4.4, and Jupiter, minus 1.8. The Iridium flares will be substantially brighter at minus 5.5 and minus 5.2, respectively.
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