The ISS passes near Fomalhaut, as seen from Adelaide on the evening of Wednesday 30 December at 21:35 ACDST. Simulated in Stellarium (the ISS will actually be a bright dot), click to embiggen.
The ISS passes below the Southern Cross, as seen from Sydney on the evening of Wednesday 30 December at 22:07 AEDST. Simulated in Stellarium (the ISS will actually be a bright dot), click to embiggen.
The ISS passes below the Southern Cross, as seen from Perth on the evening of Wednesday 30 December at 20:34 AWST. Simulated in Stellarium (the ISS will actually be a bright dot), this is different from the Heavens Above prediction which has it above the Southern Cross. click to embiggen.
All sky chart showing local times from Heavens Above for Wednesday 30 December for Adelaide.
All sky chart showing local times from Heavens Above for Wednesday 30 December for Sydney.
All sky chart showing local times from Heavens Above for Wednesday 30 December for Perth.
Tonight there is a bright evening pass of the International Space Station at or around nautical twilight (around an hour after sunset). For many places in Australia the ISS glides close the Southern cross or pointers. In other places it comes close to the bright star Fomalhaut (Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide). Darwin sees no pass.
Example cities are below.
Time Direction Magnitude
Alice Springs ACST Maximum altitude
20:32:10
19°
224° (SW)
-0.2
Adelaide ACDST Maximum altitude
21:34:59
50°
220° (SW)
-2.3
Brisbane AEST Maximum altitude
19:29:36
48°
226° (SW)
-2.2
Melbourne AEDST Maximum altitude
22:06:36
42°
215° (SW)
-1.9
Sydney AEDST Maximum altitude
22:07:11
15°
211° (SSW)
0.1
Perth AWST Maximum altitude
20:37:11
30°
219° (SW)
-1.1
When and what you will see is VERY location dependent, so you need to use either Heavens Above or CalSky to get site specific predictions for your location (I'm using Sydney, Adelaide and Perth as examples).
Start looking several minutes before the pass is going to start to get yourself oriented and your eyes dark adapted. Be patient, there may be slight differences in the time of the ISS appearing due to orbit changes not picked up by the predictions.
