The International Space Station will make a bright, if brief, appearance over Honolulu on Tuesday night, weather permitting, followed by a slightly longer but dimmer pass Wednesday.
The space station will rise in the northwest at 7:52 p.m. and head straight up toward the top of the sky.
It will pass to the right of the waxing crescent moon just before 7:55 p.m. and blink out of sight less than a minute later as it enters the shadow of Earth, between Orion’s head and upraised sword.
Jupiter, meanwhile, will be halfway up the eastern sky.
On Wednesday the space station will seem to buzz Jupiter as it arcs across the heavens. It will rise at 6:59 p.m. in the northwest, below the constellation Cassiopeia, and move to the right.
It will pass just below Jupiter at 7:02 and 40 seconds and blink out of sight in the southeast at about 7:05 p.m.
Jupiter is shining at minus 2.6 magnitude, so the space station will be much brighter at minus 3.5 on Tuesday, and as bright as the giant planet on Wednesday.
Currently 268 miles up, the space station is traveling at 17,100 mph, orbiting Earth every 90 minutes, but it is visible only before dawn or after dusk when it is illuminated by sunlight.
There are two Americans aboard, Navy Capt. Barry E. "Butch" Willmore and Air Force Col. Terry Virts, as well as two Russian men, a Russian woman and an Italian woman.
Also on Tuesday, sunlight will briefly flash off the Iridium 11 satellite just before 6:45 p.m., about halfway between the southern horizon and the moon. Iridium satellites, part of a global communication network, have large, highly reflective antennas that occasionally catch the sun at just the right angle.
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