This past week, my family and I got an additional benefit from having the Sky Guide app on my smartphone. Sky Guide, if configured right, can give alerts as to when large, viewable satellites or space debris will be visible (as long as the sky is clear). In this case, a flyover of the International Space Station!
About 5 minutes before the flyover, my phone buzzed, alerting that the ISS’s equinox in the sky over Monument, CO would be in 5 minutes.
My family and I went outside and used the sky-object finder feature to point us in the right direction. Within one minute, we saw a small light rise over the mountains and travel at a visible, moderately-swift rate of speed (like the lights of a jet).
The sun had set, but ISS was high enough to reflect sunlight to our location and we could clearly see the station streak across the sky.
It’s having tools such as these, and a good telescope, that can really add excitement to viewing an otherwise benign starry night.
As my previous article on Sky Guide presented, you can see the sky where you are due to your phone’s GPS capabilities. With the alert setting configured right, you’ll get alerts on visible objects or craft such as ISS was last week. If you love astronomy and star gazing, I once again highly recommend this app, and hopefully you will see ISS fly over sometime soon!
For The Great Galactic Space Gimmick, I’m Gimmick Commander Ben Faltinowski! 🙂
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