For a good view of the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Endeavor ...

On Thursday and Saturday evenings, people in the Roanoke area have good opportunities to see the International Space Station with the Space Shuttle Endeavor docked to it as they pass directly overhead. They will appear together as a single bright star, growing to the brightness of Jupiter, which lies in the southwest as darkness falls.

At about 6:12 p.m. on Thursday, look to the southwest just to the right of bright Jupiter and brilliant Venus. The station-shuttle pair appears as a star moving upwards in the sky. It takes three minutes to advance overhead, brightening all the while. Another minute passes before they disappear in the Earth's shadow high in the northeast.

The pair appears again on Saturday evening, this time beginning at 5:30 p.m in a brighter sky. Look to the upper right of Venus and Jupiter for this moving pair which appears as one starlike object. By 5:32, it is directly overhead, and three minutes later, it disappears from view as it enter the Earth's shadow.

When they are overhead, the pair are at their closest to us, some 225 miles above our heads.

Such is our view from Earth ...