ISS transits of the Sun and Moon near Salinas, CA

PlaceSalinas, CA

From here

✕ Misses: passes 0.4 Moon widths to the side

From the centre line (64 km north)

✓ Crosses the Moon · 3.1 s

Slowed down: the real crossing takes 3.1 sThe station is about 1/335 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

Thu, Oct 22 · 7:22:56 PM · in 22 h 13 min

From here it misses. The centre line is 64 km away; anywhere in the 73 km band around it sees the crossing.

Where to look: west, 1° up
Band width: 73.0 km
Station's distance: 2,049 km
Nearest centre-line point: 37.2605, -121.6628 ↗

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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