Spacewatch: ISS visible in evening sky

The International Space Station is back in our evening sky, making conspicuous transits from the W and often fading from view as it enters eclipse in the Earth's shadow in the directions marked by asterisks in our tables of (BST) predictions. The 92.3-minute orbit of the ISS takes it across the Earth's equator at an angle of 51.64° so that by the time it reaches a latitude of 51.64° N (just to the N of London) some 23 minutes later its motion is directly from W to E at a height of 391km. On its best transits, such as the one on Friday evening, it can pass just N of London's zenith, though that same transit reaches only 60° high in the S for Manchester and 35° for watchers in Edinburgh.