"ken" wrote in message
...
Yesterday evening (Friday) at just after 8pm, I was in my garden and
saw a very bright object (as bright as Venus) moving E-W. It passed
almost directly overhead, and went into eclipse just after passing
through Andromeda, at an altitude of about 45 degrees.

Was this the ISS?

As long as it was actually passing West to East, then it was almost
certainly the ISS. It went over Crawley at about 2024BST.


I'm puzzled, because the only other time I've ever seen it, back in
2000, it was a golden colour, and this time it was almost white.

If you only saw it low in the sky it could well have looked golden, but
overhead it is bright white.

Also, I didn't think the ISS could ever be overhead at my latitude
(51 degrees N).

As Dr. Stockton mentioned, its inclination is about 51.6 degrees which means
that 51.6 is the most northerly latitude at which it can be overhead. That
is a bit north of central London (roughly Finchley).