Find the ISS with Your Valentine

Have you ever sat outside at night, looked up and seen “stars” moving across the clear sky? I bet they weren’t stars! You probably saw a satellite moving across the sky right above you! Maybe even the International Space Station (ISS). 

With the Help of STK, you can figure out when you can see the ISS from your location with the naked eye! Who doesn’t want to figure that out? 

With STK we can first model your location by simply searching for your address. Then you can bring in the ISS our satellite database. 

There are certain conditions that must be met in order for you to see the ISS with your naked eye. You can model those conditions in STK as well! You can set lighting constraints so the only times you can see the ISS is when you are in darkness and the ISS is illuminated. Then you can also model an elevation angle constraint to take into account the terrain around you or you can bring in actual 3D terrain! 

After that, use the power of STK to compute line-of-sight access between your location and the ISS. Viola! Now you know when to walk out your door, look up at the sky and see the ISS whizzing overhead!

Try this out by yourself, with friends or with your kids! This is a great way to get your children interested in space at an early age.

This just scratches the surface of what STK can do. Check out agi.com to see all of the other awesome things STK can do. And if you really want to get your hands on STK, download STK from home and start going through the training tutorials today!

If you would like to find the ISS with a significant other on the night of Valentine's Day, we are offering a training during the day to help you locate the ISS using STK. We will walk you through how to find the ISS in your specific location. That night, if the skies are clear, you can impress your significant other as you show them the ISS flying through the sky. You can sign up for that training on our training page. Hope to see you there.