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Description

Look for the International Space Station in the night sky, find out howmany astronauts are aboard it right now and what countries they come from.

Resources

Look up the orbit of the ISS in advance (no more than two or three days).
Printed image of the ISS to show the Brownies
A safe area to view the night sky, with a reasonably clear horizon.

Instructions

Aim of Badge
To understand our place in space.
This Badge has 6 options of which 4 must be completed.

Introduction
The International Space Station (ISS) is an orbiting laboratory that has been continuously occupied since November 2000. It was built by 15 different countries working together. The ISS orbits the Earth every 90 minutes. It can be seen when the sky is dark, after sunset or before sunrise. Its orbit can change, so it is best to confirm the orbit shortly before you want to look for it. The ISS moves from west to east, taking about 6 minutes to travel across the sky. It might only be visible for part of that time.

Instructions
Look up the planned orbits of the ISS in advance.
Show the images of the ISS and explain that the space station is orbiting the Earth and is due to pass over Ireland shortly.
Take the Brownies outside when a pass has been predicted.
Identify the cardinal directions (west is where the Sun has set).
Look for a bright (usually brighter than the brightest stars) light moving steadily from west to east.
The crew of the ISS is listed here: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/index.html

Acknowledgement/Source
ISS passes can be found at the website https://heavens-above.com/
This video explains how to use that site: https://youtu.be/9HjG_oINjWQ

Attachments/Template needed for activity?
Images of the ISS: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2014/12/ISS
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/International_Space_Station_after_undocking_of_STS-132.jpg

Tags

• interest badge
• ISS
• outdoors
• space

Badge Links

This activity doesn't complete any badge requirements