Seeing the ISS live with an app: How it works - all the info

The International Space Station constantly orbits the Earth. Sometimes it is particularly visible - and via app you can find out when. We present the most important apps for this purpose.

In orbit with your cell phone: Thanks to the app, you'll always have the ISS on your radar.

The ISS orbits the Earth at an altitude of just over 400 kilometers. That's close enough to see it well in a clear night sky. With binoculars or a telescope, the sightings are logically even more impressive; even a rather inexpensive pair of binoculars is suitable for this purpose.

With these apps you can always see the ISS on time

There are a variety of apps around astronomy and especially for the ISS. Among German users, two apps have clearly emerged, depending on the platform:

• For Android, there is ISS Detektor.
• For iOS devices, there is ISS Spotter.

Both apps are basically free, but can be extended in functionality via payment. In any case, it is advisable to first try out the existing features - for essential purposes such as the ISS sighting these are sufficient.Supplementary to this, or if you do not have the app just at hand, this page of NASA. There you can see the sighting options for your location and get a lot more interesting info around ISS tracking.