ISS Pass Calculator — Plan ISS Photography Settings

The ISS is visible during twilight — shortly after sunset or before sunrise — when the station is in sunlight but the ground is in shadow. Passes last 1-6 minutes. Check NASA's Spot the Station or Heavens-Above for pass predictions specific to your location.

For ISS trail shots, use a wide lens (14-24mm), f/2.8-4, ISO 400-800, and 15-30 second exposures. For detailed ISS photography through a telescope, use a very fast shutter (1/1000s-1/2000s) to freeze the rapid movement, the widest aperture available, and a moderate ISO (typically 400-1600, 800-3200 from dark sites). The ISS is sunlit and very bright — metering at roughly EV 12 — so it does NOT need extreme ISO. If your calculator suggests a tiny ISO it is because the freezing shutter is already very fast at a wide aperture; for telescopes at f/8-f/10 the ISO rises into the hundreds.

The ISS orbits at about 28,000 km/h and appears to cross the sky at roughly 0.5-1° per second when overhead. A high overhead pass crosses from horizon to horizon in about 6 minutes; a low grazing pass lasts only about 2 minutes. It is the third brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon.

Yes, with a telescope (1000mm+) and video capture at high frame rates, you can resolve the solar panels and modules. Directly overhead at about 416 km the ISS subtends roughly 0.9 arcminutes (about 54 arcseconds), rising to nearly 1 arcminute (60-63 arcseconds) on the very closest passes; on lower, more distant passes it shrinks well below that. Lucky imaging techniques (stacking the best video frames) produce the sharpest results.