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Me and my friends are trying to watch the ISS in the night sky and I need help. I cannot make sense of the numbers n2yo is giving me. Could anyone explain how this works?

This is what n2yo is showing me This is what n2yo is showing me

And this is my interpretation of it (also how do you measure elevation i.e which path is correct in the drawing because there can be 2 elevations)

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ What do you get if you click the link "map and details"? Does it show a star chart? But the answer to "which path is correct" is the one that passes through the azimuth (Az) and elevation (El) listed as the maximum altitude. $\endgroup$
    – JohnHoltz
    Commented Sep 11 at 3:23
  • $\begingroup$ If I press the map and details it shows a normal map and the path of ISS $\endgroup$
    – Arnav Badhe
    Commented Sep 11 at 6:29
  • $\begingroup$ If you could point me to any resources about how to make sense of these numbers that would be very helpful thank you $\endgroup$
    – Arnav Badhe
    Commented Sep 11 at 6:29
  • $\begingroup$ The Az is essentially the compass direction (0 is North, 90 is East, 180 is South, etc.) The El seem like you understand already. I find using the El/Az numbers better than using a star map, as many passes happen before it's dark enough to see some stars. Also the ISS is bright enough to see in heavily light polluted areas, where many stars won't be easily visible. So I find it best to use a compass (your phone probably has one built in) to familiarize yourself with the different directions at a given place. $\endgroup$
    – Greg Miller
    Commented Sep 11 at 16:17

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Look at the "max altitude" column.

That tells you that the ISS will be in the south-east quadrant of the sky when it is at its max altitude (to be precise, at a bearing of 143 degrees, so slightly south of south-east)

It will be 74 degrees above the south-east horizon (ie quite near the zenith)

But at magnitude -2.3, it will be much brighter than any star, and it will be obviously moving. Spotting it will be extremely easy (if the sky is dark at 6:41pm at your location in September)

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