The station will be visible in the skies over Russia until July 26
In July, the period of visibility of the International Space Station began over most of Russia. This was reported by the press service of the Moscow Planetarium.
The planetarium said:
The ISS always moves from west to east and completes one orbit in about an hour and a half. The ISS becomes visible from the Earth when several factors coincide – the station is illuminated by the Sun and at a certain segment of the trajectory reflects sunlight in the same way as the Moon.
From the beginning of July until July 25, 2023, the ISS will appear in the sky over Moscow and the Moscow Region three times every night, after 22:00 and before 3:00 am Moscow time.
We observe the ISS in sky: brighter than star now visible, comparable to Venus and Jupiter
Lyudmila Koshman, head of the methodological support department of the Moscow Planetarium, noted that the ISS is brighter than any star currently visible in the sky, and explained:
The brightness of the ISS [during July] will be [on average] comparable to the brightness of Venus (-4.4 m, magnitude) and Jupiter (-2.5 m) observed at this time of year. For example, today at 23:14 Moscow time at the latitude of Moscow, the brightness of the station will be -2.7 magnitude. It will fly over the southern horizon and is visible in the sky for only a few minutes. You need to look at the constellation Eagle, below Altair.
The time of the appearance of the ISS above the horizon in different cities of Russia can be found on the website mks-online.ru.
Station commander Sergei Prokopyev, cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin and Andrey Fedyaev, NASA astronaut Francisco Rubio, as well as Sultan Al-Neyadi, Warren Hoburg and Stephen Bowen are currently on board the ISS.
