NASA has revealed a new easy to use map as part of its Spot the Station tool to help stargazers find the ISS, providing the best sighting opportunities for each pinned location on the map. According to the agency, the station is best seen at dawn and dusk, and is tracked by more than 300,000 people as it circles our planet.

• The new map tool allows users to type their location into the search bar to reveal the best sighting opportunities.
• This means each location will provide a breakdown of what time the ISS can be seen and for how long, along with the angles at which the craft will appear and disappear relative to the horizon, and the maximum height it will reach in the sky.
• The Mission Control at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX, determines sighting opportunities for over 6,700 locations worldwide.
• There are thousands of sighting opportunities in the United States alone, with Houston and Austin Texas topping the list as the most popular locations in the country to look for the ISS.
• But, the space station can be seen from all around the world.
• For international stargazers, locations in the UK and Australia are the most popular for spotting the ISS, with London being the number one city.
• As the ISS orbits with an inclination of 51.6 degrees, however, it only goes as far north or south of the Equator as this latitude.
• ‘If you live north or south of 51.6 degrees, the ISS will never go directly over your head – this includes places like Alaska,’ NASA explains.
• To spot the space station, the agency says to look out for an object that looks like an airplane or very bright star travelling across the sky.
• It does not have flashing lights and doesn’t change direction, and will be moving much faster than a typical airplane at 17,500 miles per hour.