ISS passes tonight over Santa Barbara

2 visible passes tonight. First up: Tiangong rising at 9:09 PM, peaking 30° up.

Tonight's window

6:00 PM – 6:00 AM

Tue, Sep 1 · PDT

Visible passes

dark sky + sunlit satellite

Observer

34.42°N

119.70°W — Santa Barbara center

Elements

Tue, Sep 1

CelesTrak epoch, 11:57 AM UTC

International Space Station

NORAD 25544 · epoch 2026-09-01

4:37 AMWed, Sep 2Faint — low on the horizon
Rises
4:37 AM
Highest
11° at 4:41 AM
Visible for
9 min · sets 4:46 AM

2 passes you will not see (daylight or Earth's shadow)

10:05 PMTue, Sep 1In Earth's shadow — unlit
Rises
10:05 PM
Highest
24° at 10:10 PM
Visible for
10 min · sets 10:15 PM
11:42 PMTue, Sep 1In Earth's shadow — unlit
Rises
11:42 PM
Highest
28° at 11:47 PM
Visible for
10 min · sets 11:52 PM

Tiangong (China Space Station)

NORAD 48274 · epoch 2026-09-01

9:09 PMTue, Sep 1Visible — steady moving star
Rises
9:09 PM
Highest
30° at 9:14 PM
Visible for
10 min · sets 9:19 PM
Tiangong is dimmer than the ISS — read the brightness one step down.

3 passes you will not see (daylight or Earth's shadow)

10:47 PMTue, Sep 1In Earth's shadow — unlit
Rises
10:47 PM
Highest
23° at 10:52 PM
Visible for
10 min · sets 10:56 PM
12:24 AMWed, Sep 2In Earth's shadow — unlit
Rises
12:24 AM
Highest
50° at 12:29 AM
Visible for
10 min · sets 12:34 AM
2:01 AMWed, Sep 2In Earth's shadow — unlit
Rises
2:01 AM
Highest
25° at 2:06 AM
Visible for
10 min · sets 2:11 AM

Hubble Space Telescope

NORAD 20580 · epoch 2026-09-01

No visible Hubble pass over Santa Barbara tonight — 4 passes in daylight or shadow.

4 passes you will not see (daylight or Earth's shadow)

11:10 PMTue, Sep 1In Earth's shadow — unlit
Rises
11:10 PM
Highest
10° at 11:14 PM
Visible for
9 min · sets 11:19 PM
12:48 AMWed, Sep 2In Earth's shadow — unlit
Rises
12:48 AM
Highest
24° at 12:54 AM
Visible for
11 min · sets 12:59 AM
2:28 AMWed, Sep 2In Earth's shadow — unlit
Rises
2:28 AM
Highest
32° at 2:33 AM
Visible for
11 min · sets 2:39 AM
4:07 AMWed, Sep 2In Earth's shadow — unlit
Rises
4:07 AM
Highest
21° at 4:12 AM
Visible for
11 min · sets 4:18 AM

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 Santa Barbara; shadow check at each pass's peak. All times PDT. Computed 8:50 PM, 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.

Get launch alerts

Night launches from Vandenberg are visible from Santa Barbara. One email a day before, an hour before, and at liftoff — no account.

Want an email before each visible pass at your exact coordinates? Pass alerts live in the alert center with a free account.

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 Santa Barbara some nights?

The ISS orbits at 51.6° inclination and its ground track drifts west about 22° each orbit, so it overflies Santa Barbara 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 — Santa Barbara is at 34.4°N, so Hubble stays low on the southern horizon here.