ISS transits of the Sun and Moon near Naperville, IL

PlaceNaperville, IL

From here

✕ Misses: passes 1.9 Moon widths to the side

From the centre line (20 km south)

✓ Crosses the Moon · 0.8 s

Slowed down: the real crossing takes 0.8 sThe station is about 1/99 of the Moon's width: it never covers it, it shows as a small black dot sliding across (drawn larger here so you can see it).

Open the centre line in your map app ↗

Tiangong · Moon

Fri, Oct 23 · 10:29:21 AM · in 2.0 days

From here it misses. The centre line is 20 km away; anywhere in the 8 km band around it sees the crossing.

Where to look: southeast, 40° up
Band width: 8.1 km
Station's distance: 593 km
Nearest centre-line point: 41.5820, -88.0847 ↗

How to catch it

Be on the centre line a few minutes early: the crossing is over in about a second, too fast to aim.
Record video or a fast burst (10+ frames a second) with a long lens, and start a few seconds before.
Check again the day before: orbit updates can move the line by a few km.
Moon transits work with any telescope or long lens; Sun transits need a solar filter.

Transits and near misses, next 14 days

Each drawing is what you would see from here. Orange: it crosses from here; otherwise, how far to go. Tap one to see it.

What is a transit?

Seen from a spot on the ground, the space station sometimes lines up exactly with the Sun or the Moon and passes in front of it as a tiny black shape.

Because the station is only 400 km up, a few km to the side is enough to make it miss: the transit is visible only from a narrow band, the centre line.

These times come from the latest orbit; the further ahead, the more the line can shift.

Computed by OrbitNight from the latest orbits (Space-Track) with astronomy-engine for the Sun and Moon.

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