International Space Station

Passes of the International Space Station can be predicted with the help of sites like Heavens Above. You may have even seen it before without realizing, because it looks like an airplane, except for that it has no blinking lights. When you consider, though, that it orbits at about 200 miles above the earth, & is travelling at over 17,000 miles an hour, airplanes seem so, well-- terrestrial :-)

Here are three shots I managed in September. They were long exposures of 16 seconds each, which is why it just looks like a line. In the first one, we see the Space Station entering from the west (left), & ironically enough, an airplane is passing as well. Note the repeating pattern of the airplane as its lights blink.

In the second shot, the space station passes directly in fornt of the camera. The airplane is exiting out the right (east).

In the last shot, it departs to the northeast. Another difference between the pass of the ISS & an airplane is that the ISS has a noticeable arc to its path, while an airplane travels in an obvious straight line.