Space station will be visible to the naked eye this week in Pennsylvania sky

The International Space Station will offer 2 great naked-eye viewing opportunities as it passes over central Pennsylvania this week.

The ISS will appear in our sky at 6:16 p.m. Monday, December 6, at 10 degrees above the west-northwest horizon. (Each 10 degrees in vertical space is about the width of a fist at the end of an outstretched arm.) Over the next 5 minutes it will move to the southeast, rising to a maximum height of 73 degrees before disappearing at 35 degrees above southeast.

The ISS will appear again at 5:29 p.m. Tuesday, December 7, at 10 degrees above the northwest horizon. Over the next 7 minutes it will move to the southeast, rising to 66 degrees before disappearing at 10 degrees above east-southeast.

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NASA explains, “The horizon is at zero degrees, and directly overhead is 90 degrees. If you hold your fist at arm’s length and place your fist resting on the horizon, the top will be about 10 degrees.” Each additional fist-width above the horizon is roughly another 10 degrees of elevation.

According to NASA, “The space station looks like an airplane or a very bright star moving across the sky, except it doesn’t have flashing lights or change direction. It will also be moving considerably faster than a typical airplane (airplanes generally fly at about 600 miles per hour; the space station flies at 17,500 miles per hour).”

Contact Marcus Schneck at mschneck@pennlive.com.