Astroblog: The ISS and Venus and Jupiter (July 27-29, 2015)

Monday, July 27, 2015

The ISS and Venus and Jupiter (July 27-29, 2015)


The ISS passes between Venus and Jupiter, as seen from Melbourne on the evening of Wednesday July 29 at 18:17 AEST. Simulated in Stellarium (the ISS will actually be a bright dot), click to embiggen.	The ISS passes above Venus and Jupiter, as seen from Adelaide on the evening of Tuesday July 28 at 18:39 ACST. Simulated in Stellarium (the ISS will actually be a bright dot), click to embiggen.	The ISS passes passes above Venus and Jupiter, as seen from Sydney on the evening of Monday July 27 at 18:29 AEST. Simulated in Stellarium (the ISS will actually be a bright dot), click to embiggen.

All sky chart showing local times from Heavens Above for Wednesday July 29 for Melbourne.	All sky chart showing local times from Heavens Above for Tuesday July 28 for Adelaide.	All sky chart showing local times from Heavens Above for Monday July 27 for Sydney.

Starting tomorrow night until the 29th there are a series of evening passes of the International Space Station that take them close to the paring of Jupiter an Venus, or even between them.

When and what you will see is VERY location dependent, so you need to use either Heavens Above or CalSky to get site specific predictions for your location (I'm using Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney as examples, for example, the view from Melbourne is radically different from that of Adelaide and Sydney on the night of the 29th). Even the difference between the city centre and the suburbs can mean the difference between seeing the ISS go through Venus and Jupiter or just above it.

Start looking several minutes before the pass is going to start to get yourself oriented and your eyes dark adapted. Be patient, on the night there may be slight differences in the time of the ISS appearing due to orbit changes not picked up by the predictions. The ISS will be moving reasonably fast when it passes near Venus and Jupiter, so be alert.

Labels: ISS, Jupiter, Satellite, unaided eye, Venus