The International Space Station is the third-brightest object in the night sky — after the Moon and Venus. You don't need a telescope, a dark-sky park, or any skill. You just need to know when to look.
Open GeographicHub's live ISS tracker, tap Use my location, and it will compute the next few visible passes over your city. Each listing shows the start time, end time, and maximum altitude above the horizon.
The best passes are 1–2 hours after sunset or before sunrise, when the sky is dark but the station is still sunlit 400 km above you. Passes at midnight usually happen in Earth's shadow — the station exists but you can't see it.
The tracker tells you from which compass direction the ISS rises. Usually it climbs from the west or north-west. Give your eyes 2–3 minutes outside to adjust to the dark.
It looks like a star that moves. It does not blink like a plane and makes no sound. A pass lasts 2 to 6 minutes from horizon to horizon.
There are usually 7 astronauts aboard. At 7.66 km/s they see sixteen sunsets a day. You won't get a reply, but it's a surprisingly moving moment.
Yes. The International Space Station reflects sunlight and appears as a fast-moving, steady bright point — brighter than most stars and planets. No telescope is needed; binoculars help only if you want to make out a shape.
A steady, non-blinking white-ish point of light moving silently across the sky. It looks like a bright star, but it moves. A pass lasts about 2 to 6 minutes as the station crosses from horizon to horizon.
The best passes happen roughly 1–2 hours after sunset or 1–2 hours before sunrise — when the sky is dark but the station is still sunlit 400 km up. During the middle of the night the ISS is usually in Earth's shadow and invisible.
No telescope. A free app — or GeographicHub's live ISS tracker — is enough to tell you when the next pass is, in which direction it will rise, and at what maximum altitude.
About 7.66 km per second, or 27,600 km per hour. It circles the Earth every ~93 minutes, which means 16 sunrises and sunsets per day for the crew.