See the International Space Station from your back garden tonight: ISS to shine brightly in UK skies for next few days



Sky-gazers in the UK will be able to see the International Space Station (ISS) shining brightly in the night sky tonight.

Between now and Monday the ISS will be entering a path which keeps it in almost constant daylight on the border between Earth’s day and night – known as the day-night terminator.

When it is in this zone, which happens once a year, it will be one of the brightest objects in the night sky, visible with the naked eye.

The International Space Station is seen flying through the constellation of the Plough (file picture)

It will be easy to see every time it passes, occasionally up to five times a night, as it tracks across the sky.

It will look like a moving star that will be as bright as Venus with each pass taking between two and four minutes.

The ISS takes just 90 minutes to make a full circle around the planet as it travels about 280 miles at 17,000 miles an hour above Earth's surface.

The space station is not always visible at night when it passes overhead, because it spends about 30 percent of its time cloaked by Earth's shadow.

In London, the Space Station will be visible at around 10.30pm tonight in the western night sky and will be extremely bright.

The space station is covered with lots of solar panels, which reflect sunlight.



The International Space Station (ISS) flies high above California. The station will be clearly visible from Earth for the next few days

At times, the ISS is the second brightest object in the night sky, surpassed only by the moon. It will be easy to distinguish from a passing plane as it’s bright glow does not flash.



To find out when the ISS will be visible from your exact location log on to http://spaceweather.com/flybys/country.php here.

The website can give you exact dates, times, viewing direction and even how bright the ISS will appear from your back garden.

Last month Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the ISS and replenished supplies, delivering an equipment rack filled with fresh batteries for the station's solar power system and a work platform for the station's Canadian-built robot arm.



Sister ships Discovery and Endeavour are scheduled to make their final flights to the space station later this year and then Nasa plans to end its shuttle program.



