Weather permitting, the International Space Station will be making some visible evening passes across Santa Barbara’s skies during the next week. Its orbit may change, and I’ve only listed the best evening events. To get the latest and most complete predictions, visit Heavens Above.
On Friday, November 28, the ISS will make a short, low appearance starting in the NNW at 5:56 PM PST in the tail of Ursa Major, and sailing across our mountains to dim Camelopardalis, the Giraffe, where it will fade into the Earth’s shadow in the NNE at 5:58 PM.
On Saturday, it will make a brief pop-up in the NW at 6:44 PM, from Hercules on the horizon up to the Lozenge asterism forming the head of Draco, where it will vanish in our shadow at 6:46 PM.
Sunday’s pass will be bright, rising in the NW at 5:57 PM, going from Draco, across the bowl of the Little Dipper, just above Polaris, between Cassiopeia and Perseus, and fading out in Cetus in the E at 6:01 PM.
To start December, the station will rise at 6:46 PM in Hercules in the WNW, pass through Aquila and the giant bikini bottom of Capricornus to disappear in the tail of Piscis Austrinus low in the SSW near lonely Fomalhaut at 6:50 PM.
On Tuesday, it will make a higher version of Monday’s pass, starting at 5:58 PM in the WNW, and continuing above Capricornus and past Fomalhaut, setting at 6:05 PM in dim Phoenix in the SSE.
The brightest and longest pass of this sequence will occur on December 3, when the ISS will rise in the NW at 5:10 PM, through Hercules and the Lozenge in Draco, past bright Deneb and across Pegasus and Pisces, setting in Cetus in the SE at 5:17 PM.
The last evening pass of 2025 will be on Wednesday, across our western horizon, starting at 5:12 in the WNW in Corona Borealis, across the shoulders of Ophiuchus, then Scutum and above Sagittarius, below Capricornus, and ending in Grus, in the S, at 5:18 PM.
The ISS will then transition into predawn passes until the second week of 2026.
Hasta nebula,
Chuck
That last ISS pass will actually be on Friday, December 5.