Did you know that you can easily see the International Space Station at night? Quincy now knows this. When we were in Maryland, we took him to the Air & Space Museum building out at Dulles International Airport. One of the items there is the Space Shuttle Enterprise. Quincy really like it and all of the planes. We bought him a space-themed t-shirt as well.
So, in keeping with his new found interest in space, I decided to haul the family outside the other night to watch the ISS go by. It just so happens that the Space Shuttle Discovery is docked there right now too. So how does one know where and what time to look? Simple – you can either go to NASA’s website and find the information there or you can use the method I use over at Heavens-Above.com. Simply plug in your latitude and longitude and then you can find out when the ISS and other space objects will be visible to you. We’re lucky living up here in Maine because the station flies by every night – sometimes twice, not to mention no light pollution at our house.
It was fun trying to explain to Quincy that the bright object moving silently across the sky was the space shuttle and space station. I’ve watched it many a nights and it is always really cool to see. Just an FYI for you – the space shuttle will be leaving the space station later this week and that means it will look like two stars chasing each other across the sky. The shuttle lands on the 28th I believe.