The Most Breathtaking Light Streaking Across the Sky! The Chinese Space Station Is Traveling Through the Milky Way Over Daocheng, Sichuan

On Oct 31st, after the night fell and the stars scattered in the high sky of Jinzhu Town, Daocheng County in Ganzizhou, the temperature had already dropped below 0 °C. Despite the wintry wind stung the face, the journalist from Chuanguan News luckily captured the photo of the Chinese Space Station traveling across the Milky Way.

When a fast-moving tiny white blip appeared in the northwestern corner of the sky at 7:48 pm, it traveled at a steady pace towards the southeast. Like the most beautiful star in the sky, the Chinese Space Station became brighter and brighter, and soon it passed through the starry sky and vanished. The whole process, which people could observe, lasted around four minutes.

After China's Shenzhou-13 crewed spacecraft successfully launched on Oct 16, and three Chinese astronauts managed to get into the Core Cabin Module, astrophile from various places took photos of the Chinese Space Station flying in the night sky. The station became visible to the naked eyes at night on the 31st, given the excellent visibility weather condition in Daocheng and the high altitude of the flying space station.

The Chinese Space Station runs in orbit around Earth daily, but under what circumstances could we see it? In fact, it’s not hard to observe the station from the ground. The first prerequisite is the local weather since only good visibility weathers allow us to see the Space Station. On top of that, there are two requirements one needs to fulfill to make the station visible to the naked eye: both the altitude and the brightness should “meet the standards.” The flying height and the inclination of the station determine the brightness. Theoretically, it depends on the degrees of the angle at which the space station inclines to the equator. If the inclination is greater, the clearer the space station seems. However, if the inclination only ranges from 10 degrees to 20 degrees, the pollution of the atmosphere will reduce the brightness; hence the station won’t be easily observed under that condition. In addition, some applications on our mobile phones can assist us in doing the observation; for instance, one will receive alerts or notifications from the Space Station Transit Forecast of the Wechat Mini Program, “Tianwentong.” Based on the observers’ current locations, one will be informed of the updated locality of the Chinese Space Station and the traveling information, including the date, the brightness, and the starting time when the space station is visible.