zipping along...

... at warp speed, or more likely the speed of sound, though certainly not that of light. I saw the International Space Station high overhead this morning. Got up 'way too early with lots of little things to accomplish: including a return trip to the grocery store to exchange the wrong kind of yeast for the one the recipe calls for. The store opens for business at 7:00 am, but I deliberately planned my departure from home in order to be some place where the high flying object might be visible.

P. gave me the website address several years ago, but I have only timed my life for viewing the orbiting flight path once before. When it will be visible from your locale, you get email with enough instructions for tracking as it whizzes over.  The info. that came last night indicated it would be visible over west-middle Georgia at 7:10 this morning. You have to know where to look , as it is so far away/tiny and hardly discernible once the sun has come up enough to brighten the sky.

Instructions for viewing today indicated it would show up in the southwestern sky about 10 degrees above the horizon, travel towards the northeast and disappear at about 10 degrees up. I placed myself sitting in my cold car near an intersection where there were no trees on two corners. If your viewing is obscured by nearby trees or buildings, and you do not have a good line of sight down near the horizon, it is difficult to see. The first time I tried to spot it was at night, but we are in a place with lots of street lights creating so much light pollution it is always some degree of bright, never completely dark. Riding around in the dark, looking up at the sky causes a person to look a bit suspicious...

It is at such a great distance it looks like an airplane passing over, as there are blinking lights just as you would see as passenger jets flight at high altitudes. But when you know it is supposed to be there, and you are patient, eagle-eyed in the search, it is visible. I don't know the time/length of an orbit, but must be traveling a a remarkably fast clip to be seen and then not. It is moving so fast, you have to be  on your toes, paying close attention or you have sat out there in the cold/dark for nought.