Perhaps inevitably the Cumbrian weather dashed our hopes of seeing last Monday morning's lunar eclipse - clear sky before it, clear sky after, typical - but the good news is that the International Space Station (ISS) is visible in our sky again, and there are lots of opportunities to see it over the next week.

The even better news is that it is visible in the evening, so you won't have to get up at silly o'clock in the morning to see it.

If you've seen the ISS before you can skip this next bit and go straight to the dates and times below, but if you haven't  seen it before then you are looking for a bright "star" that rises in the west, arcs across the sky - from right to left as you're standing there looking at the sky - and then sets or fades from view over in the east.

The movement is the key: if you're looking at a bright light standing still in the sky that's a star, not the ISS.

There are no bright planets on view in the evening sky at the moment to confuse with the ISS, so that's a real help.

Go out on the following dates, just before the times given, and face the west. Eventually you'll see a "star" rising up from the horizon, heading left.

This will be the ISS.

Some "passes" are higher and brighter than others, but even the faint, low passes are fascinating to watch when you realise you're looking at a real life spaceship, with a crew of astronauts onboard, flying through the constellations at 17,000 mph.

The ISS is clearly visible to the naked eye, but at this time of year, when the sky never gets truly dark, it doesn't look quite as striking as it does on a frosty winter night.

But it's still an amazing sight to see.

  • DATE: May 19th: TIMES: 22:22 and 23:59
  • DATE: 20th: TIMES: 23:11
  • DATE: 21st: TIMES: 22:23
  • DATE: 22nd: TIMES: 23:12
  • DATE: 23rd: TIMES: 22:24
  • DATE: 24th: TIMES: 23:12