International Space Station to be visible to Perth residents on Tuesday as it travels over WA

Perth stargazers are in for a treat on Tuesday evening when the International Space Station appears in the WA sky.

The space station will be visible for about eight minutes from 6.40pm as it travels south-east, according to astronomy experts in Perth.

For novice space fans, there’s no need to stress about securing any special equipment to view the phenomenon — the station will be visible to the naked eye.

‘That Astronomy Guy’ Matt Woods says the space craft will look like a shooting star in the sky but will be almost as bright as Venus .

“It’ll start out as a bright, steadily moving dot in the sky, then grow brighter and brighter as it crosses overhead,” he told PerthNow about the sighting.

“At its brightest, it’ll be pretty hard to miss — then, rather dramatically, it’ll begin to fade as the ISS flies into Earth’s shadow and disappears from view.”

The visibility of the station is weather dependent — but after days of stormy weather, the Bureau of Meteorology has predicted clear skies for the sighting on Tuesday evening.

For the best chance to see the ISS, Mr Woods advised Perth space lovers to head outside about five minutes before the station appears in the sky.

“Head outside a few minutes early, give your eyes a chance to adjust to the dark, and get ready to look up,” he said.

“If you want to take photos, use 10-second exposure to capture the line as the station continues to move across the sky.”

The International Space Station is the largest human-made structure in orbit, weighing 419,725kg and measuring 109m long.

Launched in 1998, the craft was a joint project between five space agencies — including the US, Japan, Russia, Canada, and Europe.

Since 2000, the ISS has hosted the longest continuous human presence in space ever.