I was going to use this item for the P. 2 print weather page comments on Saturday morning, but I don't trust the skies to be clear. Besides, the summer solstice arrives Sunday morning, so I used that instead.

So here is a skywatching opportunity for our online readers, on the off-chance anyone is out of bed before dawn and finds the skies full of stars:

Sleepless in Baltimore? Rise and shine before 5 a.m. Sunday and, if skies are clear, watch a very bright, very high pass by the International Space Station. Watch for it at 4:50 a.m. climbing out of the southwest, as bright as Jupiter (nearby, in the south). The station will be high overhead at 4:52 a.m., then zoom off toward moonrise in the northeast. Venus is brilliant, low in the east.

There are currently six crew members on board the station. They're orbiting at 17,500 mph, currently at an altitude of about 216 miles and sinking. The next shuttle mission, when it finally gets off the ground (July?), will carry seven astronauts to the station, temporarily placing 13 people in orbit at the same time, a new record.