End of May ISS

By Chuck McPartlin

The International Space Station will say goodbye to May with a long series of visible appearances in Santa Barbara’s evening skies, if the May Gray stays away. I’m omitting some dim and very low passes, and its orbit may change from time to time, so to get the latest and most complete predictions, visit Heavens Above.

On Thursday, May 13, the ISS will first rise in Vela at 8:43 PM PDT in the S over the ocean, well below Spica, skim very close to both bright stars marking the pans of Libra, the Scales to vanish in the E at 8:47 PM, below Boötes. The two stars in Libra are called Zubenelgenubi and Zubeneschamali, from the Arabic for Southern Claw and Northern Claw. Anciently, they were part of neighboring Scorpius, the Scorpion, but the early Greeks saw Virgo as Astraea, the Goddess of Justice, and stole them to provide her with the Scales.

On its next orbit, the station will pop up in the WSW at 10:19 PM, and climb above Procyon in the W to disappear in our shadow at 10:20 PM.

On Friday, it will rise at 9:31 PM in the WSW, pass through the head of dim Hydra, along the edge of the bowls of the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper, and set in the NE at 9:38 PM. There will be a very low, short second pass at 11:11 PM.

On Saturday, celebrate International Astronomy with the brightest pass of this sequence, when the ISS rises at 8:44 PM in the SW, and goes by Denebola, the tail of Leo, through the kite asterism of Boötes, along the keystone asterism of Hercules, and sets at 8:50 PM in the NE by bright Vega in Lyra, the Harp. There will be a later dim, low pass.

Sunday’s pass will start at 9:34 PM in the W below Procyon, and proceed below the feet of Gemini, above bright yellow Capella, and through dim Camelopardalis and Cepheus to end near Deneb in the NNE at 9:39 PM.

On Monday, May 17, the ISS will appear at 8:46 PM in the WSW and make a higher, brighter version of Sunday’s pass, setting in the NNE at 8:52 PM. Look for Mercury at its highest in the W.

On Tuesday and Wednesday there will be very low and dim passes, then a gap of several days until another very low pass on Monday, May 24.

Don’t forget the total lunar eclipse early on Wednesday morning, May 26. That evening at 11:24 PM, the ISS will make a brief and low pop up in the NW.

On Thursday, the station will appear at 10:37 PM in the NNW by Capella, and set at 10:39 PM in Cepheus, in the NNE.

Friday’s first pass will rise at 9:50 PM in the N and pass low over our mountains to set in mid-Cygnus in the NE at 9:53 PM. There will be a later low, dim pop up.

On Saturday, May 29, the ISS will pop up in Auriga in the NW at 10:38 PM, and fade out in the Earth’s shadow at 10:40 PM in dim Camelopardalis, the Giraffe, in the NNW.

On Sunday, it will rise at 9:51 PM in the NNW by Capella, cruise below Polaris, and enter our shadow near Vega at 9:54 PM in the ENE.

The ISS will end May with two equally bright passes on Monday. The first will start at 9:04 PM in the NNW and go low over our mountains to set in the E at 9:09 PM. It will show up again at 10:40 PM in the WNW and pop up between Castor and Pollux to vanish in the face of Leo at 10:42 PM.