Attention Cardiff citizens - I know you’re out there - the ISS is coming to our city. Well honestly, the ISS passes over us all the time but there are two nice upcoming passes that are worth keeping an eye our for because they are bright, conveniently timed and easy to spot. There is also the slight chance it will be clear and you will actually see it happen.

Tonight on Monday June 11th the ISS will rise at 11:21pm almost due West and pass directly overhead until it vanishes into the Earth’s shadow in the East at 11:29pm. It will move very quickly overhead at a magnitude of -1.0 which is about as bright as the brightest stars you can see. It will of course fly across the whole sky, compared to those stars, in just 8 minutes and that is what gives it away.

If you miss that pass for any reason, on Wednesday June 13th almost exactly the same thing will happen again. This time it will start and finish at 10:27pm and 10:35pm respectively and will be just fractionally dimmer at magnitude -0.9. That still puts it among the bright objects up there at the time.

All of this is made extra cool by knowing that the shuttle Atlantis and its crew are currently up there working on the space station, installing solar panels and making space walks.

Thanks to Heaven’s Above for the great service they provide. You can finid out when and where to spy the ISS and an array of other objects over at their website.