Monday 25th to Sunday 31st March 2024
On Monday 25th we have a Full Moon, but you will need to be an early riser to catch it as by 5am, a little before dawn, the Moon will be setting below the horizon to the west.
If you would prefer to venture outside on the Monday evening instead, there is an excellent opportunity to observe the International Space Station. It will appear towards the west at 7.37pm and spend six minutes passing almost directly overhead, before disappearing to the south east. You are looking for a pinpoint of light, like a star, but the dot is silently moving across the sky. If you miss that one, there is another chance to see the ISS at 7.39pm on Wednesday 29th, where again it will be visible for around six minutes travelling west to east, but this time the ISS won't appear quite so high in the sky.
The reason why you only sometimes see the ISS is because its orbit around the Earth is inclined at 51.6 degrees. If the orbit was zero degrees, then the ISS would be permanently flying over the Equator. If it was 90 degrees, then the ISS would be passing directly over the north and south pole. Every time the ISS passes between the northern and southern hemisphere, it crosses the equator at that angle of 51.6 degrees. It moves at 27,600 kilometers per hour and at that speed, takes just over ninety minutes to complete one orbit. During that time, the Earth has rotated a bit, so each orbit appears to be in a different place and only some pass over the UK.
Of course it also has to be near dawn or dusk so that sunlight reflects off the enormous solar panels, otherwise you won't see a thing!
www.starsoversomerset.com
Screenshots courtesy of Stellarium
Orbital diagram and ISS image courtesy of Wikipedia
ISS 30 second time-lapse photograph courtesy of NASA
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