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See the Space Station fly over

If skies clear as expected by tomorrow (Wednesday) night, everyone in the Baltimore area should get a good opportunity to watch the International Space Station fly over. Beginning just after 8:10 p.m., look to the west northwest for a steady dot of white light, moving smartly toward the southeast. It looks like a high-altitude jet aircraft, except that it won't have any colored wing lights or flashing strobes. At 8:13 p.m. it should be 51 degrees above the southwest horizon (a bit more than halfway between the horizon and directly overhead). It will fade to black a minute later above the southeastern horizon as it moves out of the direct sunlight into the Earth's shadow. Hard to believe there are two people aboard that thing - one American and one Russian. Who ever gives them a thought these days? For predictions for future flyovers at your location, go to Heavens Above, follow the instructions to program the site for your location, and click on ISS.

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About Frank Roylance
Frank Roylance is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He came to Baltimore from New Bedford, Mass. in 1980 to join the old Evening Sun. He moved to the morning Sun when the papers merged in 1992, and has spent most of his time since covering science, including astronomy and the weather. One of The Baltimore Sun's first online Web logs, the Weather Blog debuted in October 2004. In June 2006 Frank also began writing comments on local weather and stargazing for The Baltimore Sun's print Weather Page.
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