South Africa

International Space Station visible on Sunday night: Here’s where you can see it

The Gauteng Weather Service says on Sunday night, 7 November people in these areas will be able to see an International Space Station (ISS) at 7pm.

The provincial weather service posted on their social media accounts that if the weather allows , an international space station will be visible to the naked eye.

Where will you be able to see this?

Areas:

  • Johannesburg
  • Pretoria
  • North West
  • Limpopo

According to the Gauteng Weather this will last about seven minutes from 19:02 pm.

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The last time a international space station was visible occurred in September. People in Gauteng, the North West province and Limpopo were able to view it and it was visible in Gaborone, Botswana.

READ NEXT: International Space Station visible from SA on Wednesday night – here’s how to spot it

According to Nasa the ISS is the third brightest object in the sky, so it should be easy to see with the naked eye.

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However, people did share they were sceptical they would see anything as they didn’t the last time. Including the fact the angle of the sighting is predicted to be very low, at just 10 degrees.

Facebook users sceptical if they will be able to see the International Space Station on Sunday night. Picture: Screengrab

The space station can only be seen at night and the space station needs to be overhead in order for you to see it. The international space station must be 40 degrees or more above the horizon for it to be visible. 

Although a sighting of the ISS is said to look similar to a plane, it will appear much higher and will be moving faster.

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ISS moves so fast it circles the Earth every 90 minutes. It travels at about 28,000 kilometres per hour, which gives the crew 16 sunrises and sunsets every day.

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By Citizen Reporter
Read more on these topics: Pretoria