Science

Tracking the ISS on YouTube

It is fascinating to see the Latitude and Longitude changes recorded as it travels high above the Earth.

Lesley Dewar There's always another story to tell

2 min readFeb 24, 2023

An image of an astronaut working in space outside the International Space Station, in a pressurised space suit. — An Astronaut working outside the ISS (Credit NASA on YouTube)

It passes overhead many times for me

Tonight I watched it swing up over Australia, just a little too far East for me to see it. It departed Australia up through the Gulf of Carpentaria and over the New Guinea highlands.

The second time around, it stayed too far West for me to see it, as it passed up the WA coast still over the Indian Ocean. It headed North to Indonesia and the Philippines: my screen was ablaze with lights.

It looked as though the world is on fire.

A screen shot of the lights of the Philippines as the International Space Station passed overhead at night.

Earlier, the Maldives were an amazing spectacle of light in the middle of the Indian Ocean, as the ISS swung down towards to lower end of its curved trajectory before diagonally traversing Australia from the bottom to the top.

I have missed seeing it these last few nights at the end of February 2023.

This link goes to its live broadcasts on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/live/4_OT4xFrjmM?

There will be some excellent views of it on March 2nd and 3rd 2023 from where I live in the South West of Western Australia.

I have made a note of our Latitude and Longitude

At S33.6516 and E115.3473, the ISS will be passing directly overhead and the Perth Observatory is great for publishing maps of its flight path as it comes within our viewing range.

I am able to watch it on YouTube as it comes closer and closer, before I go outside to see it pass overhead.

I raise my glass to them and wish them safe travels as often as I can.

A image of the earth from the International Space Station taken at night showing some of the lights — Photo by NASA on Unsplash