The International Space Station will be visible on the Southern Kenai Peninsula on Friday evening, February 5, if skies are clear.
Find the station at: spotthestation.nasa.gov
Click on the audio to hear about how and when to spot the ISS, and to learn about the Mars Rover on Victoria Wilson Winne's February Stargazers Report.
Transcript
For the inexperienced stargazer, one of the best times to see the stars is just as the sky begins to darken, about half an hour after sunset, when the brightest stars begin to materialize.
This is also the best time to ?nd satellites, as the sun is just a few degrees below the horizon and satellites are re?ecting its rays. If you see a “star” that is moving steadily, this will be one of close to 3,000 satellites currently in orbit.
The most famous - and biggest - of them all is the International Space Station, and is remarkably easy to see - NASA’s “Spot the Station” website tells you the precise moment and place it appears in the sky - and it certainly is extraordinary seeing it appear on cue, eliciting a strange and humbling feeling knowing there are six people squeezed into that small bright object, hurtling through space at 5 miles per second - or a colossal 17,500 miles per hour.
Friday evening, February 5, look to the southwest at 10 minutes past 6. You will soon see it appear.
Then it won’t be visible until February 23rd, then will be in our sky every evening for a couple of weeks.
Now let us look to Mars, which appears red and bright in the southerly sky at dusk. If you are unsure of where to ?nd it, on February 18th, the almost-half moon will be just to the left of the planet. And how ?tting, as February 18th marks the landing of a second Mars rover, named Perseverance.
It is joining its sister rover Curiosity, which has been gathering data for an astonishing nine and a half years. Perseverance is carrying a host of sophisticated equipment, including a helicopter drone named Ingenuity, and an instrument named Moxie - a play on the words Mars and oxygen - which will attempt to produce oxygen from Mars’ atmosphere of carbon dioxide.
So, next time you spot an unknown satellite, or the International Space Station, or the planet Mars knowing two man made rovers are up there, take a moment to wonder at mankind’s capacity for ingenuity, curiosity, perseverance and, indeed, moxie, and recall Einstein who said,
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
This is Victoria Wilson Winne, with your February Stargazer’s Report.
