macpuzlBy Chuck McPartlin
The International Space Station will be making some decent visible passes through Santa Barbara’s evening skies to usher in Autumn, weather permitting. Its orbit can vary, and it also can be seen before sunrise, so to get the complete and most recent predictions, visit Heavens Above. (INSERT http://www.heavens-above.com/?lat=34.44067&lng=-119.71572&loc=SBMNH&alt=92&tz=PST HERE)
On Wednesday, September 19, the ISS will rise in the S at 8:04 PM PDT and skim low over our ocean horizon, from the stinger of Scorpius, below the Moon and Mars, to fade out in the Earth’s shadow at 8:06 PM below the bikini-bottom shape of dim Capricornus, the Sea Goat.
On Thursday, it will appear at 8:48 PM in the WSW and pop up past Jupiter, vanishing in the W at 8:50 PM by Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown.
Friday’s pass will be the best of this series, rising in the SW at 7:56 PM by orange Antares, the heart of Scorpius, passing above Altair in Aquila, the Eagle, through the lower wing of Cygnus, the Swan, and fading out in the NE at 8:01 PM, near the faintly visible smudge of the Andromeda Galaxy. At a distance of about 2.5 million light years, this is the most distant object you can easily see with the unaided eye.
At 6:54 PM on Saturday, September 22, the Sun will cross the projection of the Earth’s equator onto the sky, heading South, marking the start of Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, and the start of Spring for the Southern Hemisphere. That evening, the station will rise at 8:41 PM in the W, cruise by orange Arcturus, along the handle of the Big Dipper, and fade out in the N at 8:45 PM, about half way between the North Star and the horizon.
The Sunday pass will start in the WSW at 7:48 PM, go by super-bright Venus, orange Arcturus, Polaris (the North Star), and set in Perseus in the NNE at 7:54 PM.
On Monday, the ISS will make a low, dim pass starting in the NW at 8:35 PM and disappearing two minutes later in the N after crossing the bowl of the Big Dipper.
The last pass of this sequence will start at 7:42 PM on Tuesday in the WNW, slightly higher than Monday’s path, and pass through the bowl of the Big Dipper again, setting by Mirfak in Perseus, low in the NNE at 7:46 PM.
