It's not easy to tell from the forecast whether our skies will be hopelessly cloudy around 5:30 a.m. tomorrow, when the International Space Station will be soaring over just north and east of Maryland. It's not too promising.

But on the off-chance the approaching cold front holds off long enough, here are the details of Thursday morning's flyby:

Look for the ISS to come out of the Earth's shadow in the northwestern sky just below the constellation Cassiopeia at 5:33 a.m. EDT. It will look like a bright star, hustling across the sky toward the southeast.

It will reach its highest point, about two-thirds of the way up from the northeastern horizon and the zenith (straight up) at 5:34 a.m. as it crosses central New Jersey.  From there, it will slip out over the Atlantic, pass just south of a brilliant Venus, and disappear over the southeast horizon at 5:37 a.m.

This pass by the ISS will be especially bright - with an apparent magnitude of minus-2.0, brighter than the brightest star, Sirius, which will also be visible low in the southeast to the right of Venus and the ISS, weather permitting.

Once again, if you go out to see it, come back inside and leave a comment.