It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's the International Space Station!
Orbiting about 250 miles above the Earth's surface, the International Space Station will be visible from the western Philadelphia suburbs for about six minutes on Monday, starting at 6:19 p.m., according to NASA.
The station will actually be passing over upstate New York and Massachusetts. Because of its height, we can still see it from our area. It will then pass out over the Atlantic near Cape Cod as it fades from our view.
Look for the station to pass from northwest to east-southeast, about halfway between the horizon and the zenith (which is directly overhead).
The station's brightness will wax and wane as it passes by; this is a function of changing amounts of the sun's light being reflected from the station's surface to our vantage point.
At its most brilliant, the station will look like an extremely bright, fast moving plane. Just don't expect to hear any jet engine noise!
The current crew of six astronauts includes two Americans, three Russians, and Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who frequently posts photographs and other live updates from the space station to his Twitter account.
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/index.html