Oslo, Norway
No visible passes tonight — the station's illumination cycle drifts across roughly two weeks.
International Space Station
A 420-tonne laboratory orbiting 400 km overhead at 7.66 km/s, bright enough to outshine every star and every planet except Venus.
- Next pass
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- Max altitude
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- Duration
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- Appears
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Can you see the ISS tonight?
No visible passes in the next 24 hours from your location. The ISS's visibility cycle drifts across roughly two weeks — check back in a few nights.
- Appears
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- Peak altitude
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- Disappears
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- Duration
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Signature
Tonight at a glance
Each row links to a full dedicated page.
Timeline
Next visible passes
The next few naked-eye passes over your exact location, with appear/disappear directions and a one-click calendar file for each.
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Practical
How to watch a pass
A visible ISS pass is one of the easiest astronomy observations you'll ever make — five simple steps and no equipment.
- Note the appear-time and appear-direction shown on the next-pass card above.
- Be outside 2 minutes early with a clear view of that direction.
- Face the appear direction and watch just above the horizon.
- Once it appears, follow it smoothly across the sky — no binoculars needed.
- Expect it to fade out mid-sky as it flies into Earth's shadow.
Photography
Capturing a pass on camera
A tripod, a wide lens and a long exposure is all you need for a dramatic streak across the stars.
| Goal | Lens | Exposure | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Streak across constellations | 14–24 mm | 20–30 s · f/2.8 · ISO 800 | One exposure captures the whole arc. |
| Long arc over foreground | 14–20 mm | Stack 6× 30 s · f/2.8 · ISO 400 | Blend frames to build a continuous streak. |
| Surface detail (advanced) | ≥ 8" tracked scope | 1/1000 s video, lucky imaging | Requires a tracking mount and a fast planetary camera. |
What you are seeing
A pressurised laboratory the size of a Boeing 747
The International Space Station is the largest human-made object ever assembled off-planet: a pressurised volume the size of a Boeing 747's interior, an acre of solar panels, orbiting at roughly 400 km and 27,600 km/h. A permanent crew of six or seven has lived aboard continuously since November 2000 — the longest unbroken human presence in space.
What you actually see is sunlight reflecting off those solar arrays and the aluminium modules. That reflection only works when the ISS is above your horizon and still catching the Sun while your sky is already dark — which is why passes cluster in the hour or two after sunset, and the hour before sunrise. When it flies into Earth's shadow mid-sky, it doesn't slow down or disappear — it just stops reflecting sunlight, and vanishes within seconds.
Reading the numbers on each card: max altitude is how high above the horizon the ISS climbs at its peak, in degrees. Anything above 40° is a spectacular pass; below 15° it will be brief and low. The appear and disappear compass directions tell you exactly which patch of horizon to face — the ISS almost always moves west-to-east, but the exact track depends on the orbit geometry for your latitude.