macpuzlBy Chuck McPartlin
Both the International Space Station and the Chinese space station, Tiangong, will be making visible passes through Santa Barbara’s evening skies during November, weather permitting. Their orbits may change, and I’ve only listed the best and brightest events, so to get the latest and most complete predictions, visit Heavens Above.
On Tuesday, November 15, the ISS will rise in the SSW at 6:10 PM PST, pass below Saturn and between Deneb Kaitos and bright Jupiter just before vanishing in the Earth’s shadow in dim Pisces in the ESE at 6:14 PM.
It will drop by twice on Wednesday, first appearing at 5:23 PM in the S for a longer, lower version of Tuesday’s pass, going below Fomalhout and Deneb Kaitos to fade away in Aries in the E at 5:27 PM. On its next orbit, it will pop up in Ophiuchus in the WSW at 6:59 PM and climb toward bright Vega in the WNW, fading out at 7:01 PM.
The station will make a bright pass on Thursday, starting at 6:10 PM in the WSW and following the Milky Way from Sagittarius, between Deneb and Vega in the Summer Triangle, and through Cepheus to disappear in dim Camelopardalis, the Giraffe, at 6:14 PM in the NNE.
Friday’s first pass will be the best and brightest of this series, from Sagittarius in the SW at 5:21 PM, close by Enif, the nose of Pegasus, then along the body of Andromeda and into Perseus in the NE at 5:28 PM. It will return for a very low skim for a minute over our NW mountain horizon below Hercules, starting at 7 PM.
On Saturday, it will make a longer and slightly higher pass from W to N over our mountains between 6:10 PM and 6:15 PM.
Sunday’s pass will again be a longer and higher mountain trajectory, from 5:21 PM in the WSW to the NNE at 5:28 PM, vanishing below bright Capella.
On Monday, November 21, it will make a very low, short skim for a minute in the NNW starting at 6:13 PM.
The last pass of the ISS in this series will be another low skim of our mountain horizon, starting in the WNW at 5:22 PM, and ending in the N at 5:26 PM.
The ISS will return to our evening sky in the first week of December.
The Tiangong station will make a bunch of low and dim evening passes between November 25 and December 13, with the best November appearance being on Monday, November 28, rising at 6:18 PM in the WSW in Sagittarius, and climbing overhead into the Great Square asterism of Pegasus in the ESE, where it will enter our shadow at 6:21 PM.
