by Ed Greenberg
Well, we had two ISS passes this evening, here in San Jose. One was at 5:30, the other at a few minutes after 7.
The sky was dark purple when the 5:30 pass rolled around. We were standing outside a restaurant on El Camino Real. The pass was as predicted by Skymap. About 180 degrees to 120 degrees azimuth. My wife estimated the apparent magnitude as that of Saturn (much dimmer than Jupiter and Venus.)
We saw it again at 7:02 PM, this time west of Venus and rising, slightly to the right. By this time the sky was dark (or as dark as it can get in a full moon :)
There were some high clouds that had rolled in, so we saw it in between the clouds, rising over a period of about two minutes, some 20 degrees of altitude.
I know that some of us are concerned about the ISS being bright in a dark sky and ruining observations and photographic exposures. Nonetheless, it's hard not be excited at seeing what looks like the very beginning of a new era in space.