Space station makes good viewing for new year

South Texas Stargazing

The San Antonio Astronomical Association invites you to participate in all of its public astronomy events. It's free, and you can view the calendar at http://www.sanantonioastronomy.org.

I can't think of a better way to begin the new year than to watch some bright International Space Station passes.

This is the perfect way to kick-start that promise you made a couple of days ago when you resolved to watch the sky more in 2012.

Tuesday night brings us an excellent opportunity to see the ISS fly overhead. Start watching for it to appear low in the north-northwest around 7:25 p.m. as a fast-moving stellar point of light. It will make a short pass through Cygnus and then fade from view in Pegasus at 7:29 p.m.

The moon will be high in the south and Jupiter will be to the moon's lower right.

Another chance to spot the station will occur Wednesday evening.

Look toward the north-northwest at 6:29 p.m. The station will be bright and easy to spot as a moving starlike light.

At 6:31 p.m. it will fly just above Polaris in the north and then glide through the horns of Taurus the bull at 6:33 p.m.

The moon will be just to the right and below the Pleiades open star cluster, so this should be an extra-special sighting opportunity.

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Space station makes good viewing for new year