I’m not sure why I never posted about this here before. It’s been around for years. Use it to impress your friends and family or to get a kid interested in science or math.
The site is called Heavens-Above. You can use it to observe bright satellites like the International Space Station and many others.
From the left side of the page click on “Change your observing location”. You will be able to drill right down to a single point anywhere on Earth (your location) and then click save if you’d like, or not, for you paranoid types. After that click on “ISS” and it will generate a table for any visible passes (overflights) of the International Space Station visible from your location. If no table is displayed try again in a few days.
If you know your constellations you can even print out a map that plots the pass across your sky along with pass details by clicking on the date.
Data on the table is displayed by:
Date: There can be multiple passes in a single day visible from the same place.
Brightness: The lower the number, the brighter the ISS will appear. Negative numbers are best.
There are then three broader columns labeled Start, Highest Point and End. Each of these is broken down by:
Time: When a pass first becomes visible is at its max altitude or ends. Shown in local military time.
Alt: This is altitude in degrees above the horizon. Ninety degreees is straight up, 45 degrees is half way to the horizon etc.
Az: This is shown as compass directions for where in the sky the pass will appear, peak and disappear.
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