ISS Transit Finder: Sun & Moon Transit Maps & Alerts

Your transits near New York

Next 10 days · within 150 km · in date order · New York time and UTC

I will travel

SOLARPROVISIONAL

Tiangong across the Sun

Sat 14 Nov · 13:39:34.2 GMT-5

18:39:34.2 UTC

To centreline

70 km

Height in sky

25.4° SSW

Crossing time

1.04 s

Strip width

18 km

QualityFair 33

SOLARPROVISIONAL

Tiangong across the Sun

Wed 18 Nov · 11:15:04.3 GMT-5

16:15:04.3 UTC

To centreline

66 km

Height in sky

29.2° S

Crossing time

1.03 s

Strip width

12 km

QualityFair 41

The quality filter hides transits below 15° above the horizon, lunar transits when the Moon is under 10% lit or the crossing is on its dark side, and the lowest-quality crossings. Show them with the button above.

More satellites crossing near you

Everything else that crosses the Sun from where you stand: the next 24 hours, and only what your kit can resolve.

MY KITResolves about 1.0″ and larger (2000 mm, 3.76 µm pixels)Change

NEXT UP FROM YOUR SPOT

Where to stand

The gold band is the strip of ground where the satellite crosses the disc. Pick a transit above to draw its path. Drag the round marker, or use the slider, to see what you would see from any spot.

The map loads when you scroll to it.

Visible stripYour placeLow cloud %You (drag me)

Move yourself across the path: on the centreline

30 km leftcentreline30 km right

Pick a transit to see the strip.

The shadow of the line of sight races along the path at several kilometres per second, so moving along it changes the time by about a second for every few kilometres. Moving across it decides whether you see a crossing at all.

CLEAREST WITHIN 120 KM

Cloud forecasts appear here for transits in the next 7 days.

CLOSEST WITH FAIR SKIES

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WHAT YOU WILL SEE FROM THERE

North up, east left: as it looks in the sky.

Enters

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Leaves

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Crossing here

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Closest to centre

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Times stay the same across the strip. Only the line across the disc moves: from the centre to the edge as you move from the middle of the strip to its boundary.

Where the transit paths fall

Each band is a strip of ground where a satellite crosses the Sun or the Moon. See the paths near you, or the next ones to cross land anywhere in the world. Tap a number or a row to highlight one path.

The map loads when you scroll to it.

HighlightedOther good transitsLow qualityYour travel distance

Across the SunAcross the MoonOnly the stretch where the satellite is high enough to be worth the trip.

TRANSITS NEAR YOU

The highlighted path sweeping across the globe. Your place in cyan.

Plan the shot

EQUIPMENT CALCULATOR

Focal length (mm)

Pixel size (µm)

Sensor width (pixels)

Frames per second

IMAGE SCALE

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SATELLITE ON YOUR SENSOR

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DISC ON YOUR SENSOR

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SHUTTER FOR A SHARP SHAPE

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FRAMES OF THE CROSSING

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FRAMING

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Saved in this browser as “My kit”, so the lists on this page only show what your kit can resolve.

FIELD MODE

T−00d 00:00:00

A red-light, full-screen countdown for your viewing spot: a clock synced to our server, where to aim, beeps at 10, 5 and 3 seconds, and a saved map for places with no signal.

TRANSIT ALERTS

Never miss one near you

We warn you three days out, confirm the exact time and path the day before using fresh orbit data, then remind you an hour and ten minutes before. If the path moves, you hear about it.

T−72 hHeads-up (provisional)
T−24 hConfirmed time and path, or moved, or cancelled
T−60 minPush: where to aim and where to stand
T−10 minPush: final reminder, opens field mode

YOUR ALERTS ON THIS DEVICE

Checking this device…

All your alerts, on the Notifications page

Why the strip is so narrow, and why it changes

A satellite transit is the moment a satellite passes in front of the Sun or the Moon as seen from one spot on Earth. The ISS is about 420 km up while the Sun is 150 million km away, so only a narrow strip of ground lines the two up. The lower the ISS sits in your sky, the further away it is: the strip widens, the crossing slows and the station looks smaller.

Height of the ISS in your sky: 29°

DISTANCE TO THE ISS

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ISS APPARENT SIZE

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STRIP WIDTH

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CROSSING TIME

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How to photograph a transit

A transit of the Sun

The station’s silhouette crossing our star is one of the finest images in amateur astronomy. It needs precise timing, the right kit and strict solar safety.

Kit

Solar filter (essential): a certified ISO 12312-2 full-aperture filter, film or glass, covering the whole front of the telescope or lens. Never use a filter at the eyepiece end: it can crack from the heat. A dedicated hydrogen-alpha solar telescope also works.
Telescope or lens: about 1000 mm of focal length or more. An 80 to 120 mm refractor or a 6 to 8 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain is ideal.
Camera: a fast burst mode (10 frames a second or more) or high-frame-rate video, and a shutter of 1/1000 s or faster.
Clock: the crossing lasts about a second, so your timing must be good to the second. Field mode on this page keeps a clock synced to our server.

Settings

Setting	White-light filter	Hydrogen-alpha
Shutter	1/1000 to 1/2000 s	1/500 to 1/1000 s
ISO	100 to 400	200 to 800
Mode	Fast burst or video	Video at the highest frame rate
Focus	Manual, on sunspots or the edge	Manual, on prominences

Step by step

Find a transit above and note its time to the tenth of a second and where its strip runs.
Stand inside the strip, as close to the centreline as you can. Arrive half an hour early.
Fit the filter first, before pointing at the Sun, then focus and frame the whole disc.
Sync your clock with field mode or a time-synced phone.
Shoot a continuous burst from about 3 seconds before the predicted time until a few seconds after.
Find the frames with the station on the disc. Stacking them shows its whole path across the Sun.

A transit of the Moon

Lunar transits need no solar filter, which makes them the best first target. The station against the cratered Moon is just as striking.

How they differ

No filter needed: the Moon is safe to look at directly through a telescope.
Phase matters: a gibbous or full Moon gives the best contrast and allows faster shutter speeds. On a crescent, aim for a crossing over the lit part.
Day or night: a lunar transit can happen whenever the Moon is up, including in a dark sky.
The station may shine: near twilight it can still be sunlit, so against the darker parts of the Moon it may look bright rather than black.

Settings by phase

Phase	Shutter	ISO
Full (90 to 100%)	1/1000 to 1/2000 s	200 to 800
Gibbous (60 to 90%)	1/500 to 1/1000 s	400 to 1600
Quarter (40 to 60%)	1/250 to 1/500 s	800 to 2000
Crescent (10 to 40%)	1/125 to 1/500 s	800 to 3200

Telescopes that suit transits

Starting out: an 80 mm refractor (480 to 600 mm) with a 2× Barlow lens to reach about 1000 mm.
Next step: a 6 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain (1500 mm), compact and sharp enough to show the solar arrays.
Advanced: an 8 inch Schmidt-Cassegrain or a 120 mm apochromatic refractor (about 2000 mm) on a sturdy mount.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the next ISS transit near me? ▼

Enter your town on this page. It lists every ISS, Tiangong and Hubble transit of the Sun and Moon within your travel distance for the next 10 days, with the exact time in your local time and UTC, and the strip of ground you need to stand in.

Why did my transit prediction change? ▼

The ISS orbit is nudged by the thin upper atmosphere and by engine burns, so a prediction several days ahead can move by seconds or minutes, and its path by kilometres. Orbital Radar recomputes every path whenever new orbit data arrives and confirms each transit the day before. Transits more than 3 days out are labelled Provisional, 1 to 3 days Likely, and under 24 hours Confirmed.

Is it safe to watch a solar transit? ▼

Only through a certified ISO 12312-2 solar filter fitted over the front of your telescope, lens or binoculars. Never look at the Sun without one, not even for a second. Sunglasses, smoked glass and camera ND filters are not safe. Lunar transits need no filter.

What is a transit corridor? ▼

The strip of ground from which the satellite appears to cross the disc of the Sun or the Moon. Its width depends on how high the satellite is in your sky: a few kilometres when it is high, and 20 km or more when it is low. Outside the strip the satellite passes beside the disc instead of across it.

How long does an ISS transit last? ▼

About half a second to two seconds. The crossing is quickest when the ISS is high in the sky and longest when it is low and further away. It is also shorter the further you stand from the middle of the strip, because the station then crosses near the edge of the disc.

Can I see the ISS cross the Moon with binoculars? ▼

Only just. The crossing lasts about a second and the station spans well under a minute of arc, so binoculars show at most a brief dark dot. A telescope or a long camera lens (about 1000 mm or more) shows its shape. Lunar transits need no filter, which makes them the easiest to try first.

Which satellites can transit the Sun or the Moon? ▼

Any satellite crosses the Sun or the Moon from somewhere on Earth, but only large ones show a recognisable shape. This page follows the International Space Station (109 m across), the Tiangong space station (55 m), the Hubble Space Telescope (13 m) and Envisat (26 m).

How accurate are the times? ▼

The calculation itself is precise to a few hundredths of a second and the paths to tens of metres. The real uncertainty is the orbit data, which is refreshed several times a day: that is why each transit carries a Confirmed, Likely or Provisional label, and why alerts confirm the time the day before.

Transits by city

New Yorknext: Sat 14 Nov Los Angelesnext: Tue 10 Nov Chicagonext: Tue 10 Nov Houstonnext: Fri 13 Nov Dallasnext: Tue 10 Nov Phoenixnext: Mon 9 Nov Denvernext: Fri 13 Nov Seattlenext: Tue 10 Nov San Francisconext: Tue 10 Nov Miaminext: Tue 10 Nov Bostonnext: Thu 12 Nov Atlantanext: Tue 10 Nov Washington DCnext: Tue 17 Nov Philadelphianext: Sat 14 Nov

This week worldwide

ALL TRANSITS

558

ISS

160

TIANGONG

154

HUBBLE

126

ENVISAT

118

MOON TODAY

1%

New Moon

Orbit data age: ISS 0 h · Tiangong 19 h · Hubble 22 h · Envisat 13 h. Orbit data is checked every 10 minutes and a satellite’s paths are recomputed as soon as its orbit data changes. Last updated: 9 November 2026, 18:24 UTC.

Catch the ISS crossing the Sun and Moon

Your transits near New York

Tiangong across the Sun

Tiangong across the Sun

More satellites crossing near you

Where to stand

Where the transit paths fall

Plan the shot

Never miss one near you

Why the strip is so narrow, and why it changes

How to photograph a transit

A transit of the Sun

Kit

Settings

Step by step

A transit of the Moon

How they differ

Settings by phase

Telescopes that suit transits

Frequently Asked Questions

Transits by city

This week worldwide

Cite this page