Happy Valentine's Day from space

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - A Providence woman and her brother exchanged Valentine's Day greetings with their father in a unique way this year.

Heidi and Anthony Ford's father Kevin Ford is the Commander of the International Space Station.

On Feb. 14, he called his children from space as he flew over Rhode Island and they watched him pass by through a telescope inside Brown University's Ladd Observatory .

The Ladd's main telescope doesn't have the ability to track fast-moving objects like the ISS, but astronomer Robert Horton had a few at home that could do the job.

So he set one of them up at the Ladd and prepared to track the station during its six-minute pass 220 miles above Providence.

If you'd like to see the International Space Station for yourself, you can. The ISS passes over Rhode Island again, Monday at night at 6:20 p.m. when it will be viewable for 6 minutes.

The observatory is open to the public every Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m.