The International Space Station (ISS) Flies over the BA during Morning Twilight
The ISS is visible as a streak of light, left of center. Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, is visible as a bright star, just rising over the Library’s building. Saturn is visible as a bright star to the top right of image.
Photo by Aymen Ibrahem, BA, Senior Astronomy Specialist

On the morning of 21 October 2008, the International Space Station (ISS) flew over Alexandria. Intriguingly, the planets Mercury and Saturn were also visible in the morning sky. BA Senior Astronomy Specialist Aymen Ibrahem photographed the ISS while it was gliding over the BA. The Library’s beautiful building appears as the foreground object of the images.

The ISS orbits Earth at a speed of approximately 30,000 km/h. It appeared over the horizon of Alexandria at about 5:25 EET, at an altitude of 10 degrees, and lasted approximately 5 minutes to traverse the sky, from the western horizon, to the eastern horizon. It was visible to the unaided eye as a bright star-like object, drifting against the background of stars. Mercury and Saturn were visible to the unaided as bright stars, over the southern horizon.

The ISS, which orbits Earth at an altitude of approximately 340 km, passed between the two planets in the sky. Mercury was approximately 140 million km away, while Saturn, the ringed giant planet, was approximately 1,500 million km from Earth. 

The orbiting outpost is visible in the long-exposure image as a streak of light, due to its orbital motion. Mercury is visible as a bright star rising over the Library’s building, to the right of image. Saturn is visible as a bright star to top right of image.  

Further Reading

NASA’s International Space Station Website
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist