In the wake of recent reports of strange moving lights in the skies above Hawke's Bay, skywatchers are being advised not to get too excited when a fast-moving bright light appears tonight.
Instead, they are being asked to try and get a photo or video clip of it.
"Tonight there will be a very bright pass of the International Space Station," Hawke's Bay Astronomical Society president Gary Sparks said.
"It will appear out of the southwest at 6.08pm and pass directly overhead."
Travelling at a speed of 27,700km/h (or 7.7km/h per second) the space station will be brightly visible for seven minutes as it travels quickly toward the northeast.
"It will become as bright as Venus," Mr Sparks said.
The pass provided skywatchers with a great opportunity to try and get a still shot - or video footage - of it, and members of the society would be posting their best efforts at their next meeting in August, he said.
"We might even consider sending a selection of the photos and videos to Nasa."
The ISS would be be visible, on different lower passes, for the following four days but tonight promised to be the prime time for the most spectacular view.
Today's weather forecast is for clear skies and light winds.
The station, which was first set up in 1998, has been continually manned since 2000 and is run by five participating space agencies.
It makes 15 orbits of earth a day.