Low humidity, high elevation, and exceptionally dark night skies mean few places on the continent rival Morongo Basin for night sky watching. This week, as the International Space Station with its crew of six make multiple passes over the Morongo Basin, sunlight will reflect off its solar panels making it visible to the naked eye. Here’s reporter Mike Lipsitz with all you need to know to get a good look…
The International Space Station will appear as a bright object moving across our sky tonight, twice Wednesday night, again on Thursday night, and twice on Friday night. Catch it tonight at 8:12 p.m. coming from the south-southwest and visible for three minutes before disappearing in the southeast. Then at 7:22 p.m. on Wednesday, catch the space station on a five-minute path coming out of the south at five miles per second headed due east. Don’t go away because at 8:56 p.m. it returns from the west on a two-minute path west-northwest. On Thursday, catch it in the west-southwest on a six-minute flight toward the northeast starting at 8:07 p.m. Friday’s four-minute show starts in the south-southwest headed northeast at 7:18 p.m. and at 8:55 pm catch it again in the northwest before disappearing in the north two minutes later. The International Space Station has been continuously orbiting the Earth 16 times a day since November 2000.
