Space Station To Fly Over Binghamton For the Next Few Nights

Are you one of the many people that are staying at home and looking for something to do? Here's something for everyone in the family to participate in and all you have to do is go outside and look up.

My daughter, Tara has been fascinated by objects in the sky for most of her life. Before the pandemic, we would make a trip or two to the Kopernik Observatory and she also has a powerful telescope to see the night time sky.

So I'm going to see if she's interested in seeing the International Space Station (ISS) when it flies over our house for the next couple of nights. I thought it would be difficult to see but it's the third brightest object in the sky and is easy to spot if you know when/where to look.

Because of its size, it reflects a large amount of sunlight and it looks like a fast-moving plane that's really high and traveling at thousands of miles an hour. It's easier to see the ISS when it's nighttime at your place and the Space Station is sunlit.

The best time to observe the ISS is in the evening after sunset and with it getting dark so early, you don't need to stay up late to see it. We'll be able to see the ISS every night through Saturday, December 12th. Then again on Thursday, December 17th and Saturday, December 19th.

The next questions is: What time to look and the direction to be looking in. NASA has provided an astro viewer so that you can see the exact time, location and for how long the ISS will be visible in the Binghamton area.

Here's a helpful hint: It's in the 5 p.m. every hour this week. If you are in another part of the country or world, you can go here. Type your place in the location search bar and it'll show you the time and direction to look.