ISS passes tonight over London
1 visible pass tonight. First up: ISS rising at 4:50 AM, peaking 41° up.
International Space Station
NORAD 25544 · epoch 2026-09-01- 4:50 AMWed, Sep 2Visible — steady moving star
- Rises
- 4:50 AM
- Highest
- 41° at 4:55 AM
- Visible for
- 11 min · sets 5:00 AM
Tiangong (China Space Station)
NORAD 48274 · epoch 2026-09-01No visible Tiangong pass over London tonight.
Hubble Space Telescope
NORAD 20580 · epoch 2026-09-01No visible Hubble pass over London tonight.
Orbital elements: CelesTrak, epoch 2026-09-01 11:57 UTC. Elevation-only predictor (no direction of travel); passes above 10°; darkness = sun below −6° at London; shadow check at each pass's peak. All times GMT+1. Computed 4:50 AM, refreshed every 30 minutes.
How to spot the ISS
- Be outside two minutes before the rise time with as much open sky as you can find. City lights are fine — the station outshines them.
- Look for a steady, un-blinking star moving about as fast as a high airliner. No flashing lights, no sound. If it blinks, it is a plane.
- It is brightest near the “highest” time on the card — that is when it is closest to you. Passes above 60° go almost overhead.
- If it fades out mid-sky, that is normal — it just flew into Earth's shadow. Wave anyway; the crew is up there.
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Frequently asked
How bright is the ISS?
On a high pass the International Space Station reaches magnitude −3 to −6 — brighter than any star and comparable to Venus — a steady white point that does not blink and makes no sound. Tiangong is a step dimmer (about −1 to −3) and Hubble is a faint, steady star (+1 to +2) that wants a dark sky. Our brightness hint uses peak elevation only: passes above 60° are the bright ones; below 30° the object stays low in haze.
Why do passes end abruptly?
A satellite is visible only while it is in sunlight and you are in darkness. When it flies into Earth's shadow it fades out over a few seconds — often still high in the sky. That is not cloud: it is orbital sunset. Passes an hour or two after dusk usually end this way; passes before dawn often begin this way, with the station appearing out of nothing overhead.
Why are there no passes over London some nights?
The ISS orbits at 51.6° inclination and its ground track drifts west about 22° each orbit, so it overflies London in runs of a week or two, then swings away for a similar stretch. Even when it does pass over, the sun angle has to line up so the station is lit while your sky is dark. Tiangong (41.5°) and Hubble (28.5°) never climb high for cities north of those latitudes — London is at 51.5°N, so Tiangong stays low here and Hubble is rarely visible at all.