Tonight, I went out a little early to look for the ISS. I was lucky enough to see a slow orange meteor drop from the zenith toward the northwest. Very cool. Twenty minutes later, the ISS drifted steadily across the sky from NW to SE, taking about 6 minutes. According to my cellphone app, during the time I watched it, the ISS flew more directly over Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, and on into Mexico. (It was over Tokyo when I saw the meteor.) Not so long ago, you had to be a scientist to have this kind of information at your disposal. We live in an amazing Age.
Watching the ISS isn’t a breath-taking spectacle, but it is very cool. You’re looking at one of our machines (bigger than a 5 bedroom house) with human beings on the edge of space. And you’ll see more than just the ISS when you spend a few minutes looking up.