I saw WISE yesterday

I got up at 6 in the morning and saw WISE pass over Los Angeles from North to South. It was
easily visible in binoculars. WISE reached its maximum altitude of 80 degrees in the Western sky, while the Sun was 10 degrees below the horizon, giving a 70 degree phase angle.

You too can see WISE using the tools of the Heavens Above web site. First enter your position (remember West longitudes are negative so all of the Americas have negative longitudes), then bookmark the page. The URL in the bookmark will save your position.

Then click on “select another satellite from the database”. Enter WISE into the satellite name and search. You will only get one results “WISE in Earth orbit”. Click on that, then click on “passes”. Click on the date-time of a pass to get the pass details. Find a pass where WISE is high in the sky, the Sun is well below the horizon, and WISE is West of the zenith for morning passes or East of the zenith for evening passes. This will only work in the wintertime: Dec-Jan for the Northern hemisphere or June-July in the South. Use the star maps to line up binoculars and wait for the appointed time.

Good hunting!

The Heavens Above web site is great for brighter satellites like the HST, visible from LA but not from farther North, and the International Space Station, which gets brighter than Jupiter on good passes.