ISS passes · Stockholm, Sweden

Visible ISS passes over Stockholm

There are no visible passes over Stockholm in the next seven days that clear 5° above the horizon. That is normal at this latitude at this point in the station's cycle: the orbit is tilted 51.6°, so the ISS always passes south of Stockholm, and the few passes that reach it happen either in full daylight or in Earth's shadow. The best remaining attempt is Saturday 31 October at 05:40, peaking at only 4.5° in the south-west — below our cut-off, but worth a look from a spot with an open horizon. This page is rebuilt every day, so it fills in as soon as the geometry works out.

Computed 29 Oct 2026 16:43 UTC from orbital data of 28 Oct 2026 11:12 UTC. Rebuilt every day.

Visible ISS passes over Stockholm in the next seven days

All times are local (Europe/Stockholm), 24-hour clock. “Direction” is where the station enters and leaves the sky. Only passes where the Sun is at least 6° below the horizon and the station itself is in sunlight are listed — the ones you can actually see.

How to catch a low pass from Stockholm

• Go out two minutes early. The station moves fast enough that a late start usually means you catch only the end of the pass.
• Face the direction given above. A low pass skims the horizon, so you need a clear line of sight that way — trees and rooftops will hide it.
• No equipment needed. A bright pass looks like a steady white dot, brighter than any star, crossing the sky in about ten minutes without blinking. Binoculars make it bigger but not more interesting.
• Give your eyes a minute. Look away from street lights and phone screens; the station is easy to see even from a city centre, but a dark spot makes the pass unmistakable.
• Watch the colour. Low passes near the horizon can turn orange or red as sunlight filters through the atmosphere — the same effect as a sunset, because that is exactly what you are seeing.

Why the ISS skips Stockholm for weeks at a time

Seeing the station needs two things at once: it has to be above your horizon, and it has to be sunlit while your sky is dark. The station orbits at 51.6° inclination, so from Stockholm (59.3° north) its ground track shifts west every orbit. For a week or two the evening passes line up with the twilight window and you get a run of good sightings; then the geometry drifts and the station is only up there during the day.

From Sweden the station often stays low in the south, and midsummer twilight makes summer passes hard to see.

How these times are calculated

Every number on this page comes from the current CelesTrak two-line element set (TLE), propagated with SGP4 — the same model NASA and most tracking apps use — and converted to your local horizon with a full topocentric correction. The element set used here is from 28 October 2026, 11:12 UTC. A TLE is good for a few days; over a week the predicted times can drift by a minute or so, and a reboost of the station shifts everything by a few seconds. Check the live tracker on the day itself.

Nearby cities

• ISS passes over Helsinki (396 km)
• ISS passes over Oslo (416 km)
• ISS passes over Copenhagen (522 km)
• ISS passes over Warsaw (810 km)
• ISS passes over Berlin (811 km)
• ISS passes over Hamburg (811 km)

All cities → Live tracker

Questions

Can I see the ISS from Stockholm tonight?

Not in the next seven days, according to the current orbit. The page updates daily, so check back in a few days.

How bright is it?

On a pass above 40° the station is typically magnitude −3 to −4, comparable to Venus and bright enough to be followed easily from a lit street. A 15° pass near the horizon is dimmer, more like a bright star, and easier to mistake for an aircraft — but aircraft blink and the station does not.

Does it make a sound?

No. At 400 km the station is far above the atmosphere you hear, and it travels faster than sound could carry anything towards you.

Page generated 29 October 2026, 17:43 (Europe/Stockholm). Data: CelesTrak TLE, SGP4 propagation, local horizon correction.