Category Archives: Satellites

An object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Satellites have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation (GPS), broadcasting, scientific research, military and Earth observation.

Spotting Earth Orbiting Satellites

Interest in watching for satellites has really increased over the past decade mainly due to the International Space Station being assembled in orbit, growing in size and brightness, etc.  The amount of hardware orbiting over head has also increased. With all this stuff circling around above, your chances of seeing one of these spacecraft glide across the pre-dawn or evening sky only increases. Perhaps you’ve seen a “moving star” yourself and wondered what it might be? An airplane perhaps? But wait, there were no navigation lights blinking to give it away. Maybe it was a UFO? Chances are what you saw was a satellite silently sweeping across the sky, and possibly looking down at you.

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