Skywatch: International Space Station visible several times this week – Tulsa World

Sunday: Low in the west this evening are two planets, though one will be trickier to spot than the other. At 8:30 p.m., the innermost planet Mercury is 6 degrees above the horizon and is the brightest object in this small region of the sky. Uranus is also nearby, but binoculars will be needed to locate this distant planet. To spot Uranus look 3 degrees to the lower left of Mercury.

Monday: The International Space Station makes several high bright passes over the next few days. Tonight the space station appears about 10 degrees above the southwest horizon at 8:57 p.m. The ISS will move northward, passing by the constellations of Taurus, Orion and Gemini before reaching a height of 73 degrees above the northwest horizon three minutes later. At 9:02 p.m., the spacecraft disappears as it slips into Earths shadow 22 degrees above the northeast horizon.

Tuesday: The International Space Station makes two bright passes tonight. The first starts in the south-southwest at 8:04 p.m. The ISS will move close to the bright star Sirius in the south then close to the star Regulus in the west, before disappearing shortly after 8:11 p.m. The second pass is brief and not as bright, but the space station passes extremely close to the planet Mars. The time of closest approach occurs at 9:42 p.m. when the space station will be less than a 10th of a degree from Mars.

Wednesday: The last bright pass of the International Space Station in this group occurs tonight. At 8:49 p.m. the spacecraft is 10 degrees above the western horizon. One minute later the space station passes within 5 degrees of the moon and 2 degrees of Mars. By 8:52 p.m. the ISS is 29 degrees above the northwest horizon. As the space station moves farther to the northeast it fades only slightly, and at 8:54 p.m. the station is 10 degrees above the north-northeast horizon.

Thursday: Tonight, the planet Mars is in the same area of the sky as the crescent moon. At 9 p.m. the pair are separated by 8 degrees. Both objects currently lie between the constellations of Aries and Taurus.

Friday: After being around Mars yesterday, the moon is now near the Hyades star cluster. At 9 p.m. the moon sits at the bottom of the V which represents the head of Taurus the bull. Most of the stars that compose the V and many that cannot be seen are part of the Hyades cluster. The major exception is Aldebaran, the bright red-orange star that happens to lie along our line of sight to the cluster.

Saturday: Though the moon is not too far from the constellation of Orion the Hunter, the Orion Nebula is always a fun target. The nebula can be seen with binoculars or a telescope and is easy to find. Below the three stars that form the hunters belt are three fainter stars in a row perpendicular to the belt stars. The middle star is actually the nebula.

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Skywatch: International Space Station visible several times this week - Tulsa World