The following is from a transit report for the Whitin Observatory at Wellesley College (I once used the 12" refractor there ;-)

A - travel distance (miles) and direction
B - date
C - time
D - elevation angle of the ISS
E - azimuth angle of the ISS ( + is East from North; - is W from N)
F - range (miles)
G - latitude for observing the transit
H - longitude
I - how far (miles) can I be from the centerline?

For other than solar transits:
J - lunar transits: is space station sunlit?
    planetary encounters: 1=Mercury; 2=Venus; 4=Mars; 5=Jupiter; 6=Saturn
K - sun elevation angle
L - sun/moon or sun/planet separation angle

A------- B----- C-----  D--- E----- F--- G------- H-------- I---- J K---- L----
 51.5 W   3 May  63717   9.1   76.7  864  42.2438  -72.3073   7.7
 42.4 W   3 May  63718   9.2   76.8  859  42.2367  -72.1282   7.7
 33.5 W   3 May  63719   9.3   76.9  854  42.2291  -71.9512   7.6
 24.8 W   3 May  63720   9.5   77.0  849  42.2208  -71.7763   7.5
 16.4 W   3 May  63721   9.6   77.1  844  42.2119  -71.6032   7.5
  9.2 SW  3 May  63722   9.7   77.3  840  42.2025  -71.4319   7.4
  6.9 S             22.70                 42.1955  -71.3138   7.4
  7.4 S   3 May  63723   9.8   77.4  835  42.1925  -71.2623   7.4
 13.2 SE  3 May  63724  10.0   77.5  830  42.1820  -71.0944   7.3
 21.0 SE  3 May  63725  10.1   77.6  826  42.1709  -70.9282   7.3
 29.2 E   3 May  63726  10.2   77.7  821  42.1594  -70.7635   7.2
 37.4 E   3 May  63727  10.3   77.8  817  42.1474  -70.6003   7.1
 45.6 E   3 May  63728  10.4   77.9  813  42.1349  -70.4387   7.1
 53.8 E   3 May  63729  10.5   78.0  808  42.1220  -70.2785   7.0

As shown below, one can use Arnold Barmettler's CalSKY^ both to confirm this prediction, and to generate a graphic of how the transit should appear.

By the time this observation is made, the report will be about 3 days old.  For predictions more than about a day off, Arnold uses the same NASA MCC ISS ephemeris that I use.  For nearer events, he uses TLEs from OIG.  My own impression is that the MCC predictions tend to be more accurate (assuming they're less than a week old) than the OIG-based predictions, with regard to position.  The prediction from the "fresher" OIG TLE is likely to be more accurate with regard to the precise timing, however.

First, however, I'd like to address the issue of mapping the transit path.  I had developed a Macro Express macro to automate plotting using Microsoft Streets & Trips 2001 (note the warnings about later versions).  Then, however, I saw some really nice transit maps made by Robert Hodge, a subscriber in New Mexico, using DeLorme Topo USA.  Robert had used an "import" feature to create them.

Since I have a DeLorme GPS and DeLorme Street Atlas software, I went to Help, and found that it also can automatically plot points, given a text file containing latitude & longitude.  Then I scratched around in S&T's Help -> keyword "import" -> "Choose a valid heading for each location field," and found that it also can plot locations, given a text file containing the latitudes & longitudes.

The Macro Express method has some advantages, however... well, one advantage anyway; it lets you choose what color pushpin to use.  In ME's "Scripting Editor," the macro looks like the following, in its current incarnation:

(The marked out lines indicate "commented out" code.)  ME also offers a "Direct Editor" mode that uses simple text.  As text, you can download the macro as plotTransit_txt.zip, then change the name to plotTransit.txt, and cut & paste it into the Direct Editor.

To make things even easier, I've exported the plotTransit macro in the file plotTransit.mex (downloadable as plotTransit_mex.zip + another name change); put plotTransit.mex in your C:\Program Files\Macro Express3 directory.

If you're only interested in running this macro, you could do File / Open Macro File.  If you want to add the plotTransit macro to an existing macro file (such as samples.mex), you can do File / Import / Import Macros... / Open File, etc.  I've assigned the macro the hotkey combination Ctrl-Alt-t (which can be changed, of course).

Hopefully, the macro will run correctly at any screen resolution.  However, you must resize the S&T window to use your full screen (contrary to what it says above, it appears that the macro works if you maximize the S&T window, rather than simply resize it to use the full screen).

However... (if you normally have the Windows taskbar showing) you should also right-click on the Windows taskbar, choose Properties, check "Auto-hide the taskbar"- and uncheck "Keep the taskbar on top of other windows."  You can fiddle with the macro to make it work with the taskbar showing, of course, if you want to go to the bother.

By using all of the screen (including that which the taskbar might otherwise occupy), the macro can figure out what it's supposed to do, independent of the screen resolution you're using (I normally use 1152x864).

To use the macro, cut & paste the lines you're interested in plotting from your transit report and save them in C:\Worldview\plot.txt (again, you could use a different filename & location if you want to change the macro).  Start up S&T according to the instructions above, and zoom to maximum (so that the pushpins are guaranteed to be far apart while plotting).  Then you hit Ctrl-Alt-t and tell it what color pushpins you want, etc., and it does the rest!

The Emacs method

It'd be fairly easy to write a Java program to convert the transit report to a digestible format for S&T or Street Atlas; however, I use the free Emacs^ editor, for both Linux & Windows.  Emacs features "regular expression^" find & replace, making it easy to convert text copied from a report (in either email, or online form) into a S&T importable format.  It also allows you to define macros^, that can further simplify the task.  (By typing Alt-x shell Emacs also lets you open a Command Prompt window that's a bit nicer than the Windows' Command Prompt window.)

In Linux/Unix, the Emacs configuration file is .emacs, in your home directory.  In Windows, this file may be named either .emacs, or _emacs; the default directory is C:\.  You can change this by defining the environment variable HOME; for example (in Windows XP), Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables -> User
Variables, then enter a value such C:\Documents and Settings\Thomas Fly, and put your _emacs file there.

This _emacs file contains a macro that will convert the format in your transit report to a form that can be imported by S&T, just by getting the lines that you want to plot into an Emacs buffer, and hitting F12.  But for explanatory purposes, here's how you'd accomplish this task "manually:"

Let's say I wanted to plot the transit points within 20 miles, in the report above.  First, I'd cut & paste the following into an Emacs buffer:

 16.4 W   3 May  63721   9.6   77.1  844  42.2119  -71.6032   7.5
  9.2 SW  3 May  63722   9.7   77.3  840  42.2025  -71.4319   7.4
  6.9 S             22.70                 42.1955  -71.3138   7.4
  7.4 S   3 May  63723   9.8   77.4  835  42.1925  -71.2623   7.4
 13.2 SE  3 May  63724  10.0   77.5  830  42.1820  -71.0944   7.3

I can then type Ctrl-Alt-% (which also requires the Shift key!) for the Emacs command "Query replace regexp."  I'd then type:

.\{16\}\(..\)\(..\)\(..\).\{19\}\(........\) \(........\).*

followed by Enter. This says I want to skip the first 16 characters; store the next 3 pairs of characters (namely, the time); skip 19 characters; store the next 8 characters (latitude); skip a space; store the next 9 (longitude); and finally skip all characters, to the end of the line.  Now I type:

   \1:\2:\3, \4, \5

again followed by Enter.  If I now type a ! (exclamation point), it'll change all the lines, as follows:

    6:37:21,  42.2119,  -71.6032
    6:37:22,  42.2025,  -71.4319
     :  :22,  42.1955,  -71.3138
    6:37:23,  42.1925,  -71.2623
    6:37:24,  42.1820,  -71.0944

leaving me with a little fix-up work to do.  For Streets & Trips, I also want to add a header, so that my import file will now look like:

Information, Latitude, Longitude
    6:37:21,  42.2119,  -71.6032
    6:37:22,  42.2025,  -71.4319
      22.70,  42.1955,  -71.3138
    6:37:23,  42.1925,  -71.2623
    6:37:24,  42.1820,  -71.0944

I save this file in My Documents, say, as transit-plot.txt, and fire up S&T (shown here in 800x600 resolution):

I can then do File -> Import data (or just Ctrl-i):

and select my transit-plot file:

A couple more clicks later, and I get this (except for the red arrow, that I drew in using the Drawing tools):

and here's a zoomed view: