Observing Satellites

There are more satellites than ever in orbit and those in low earth orbit can often be seen going over in the early evening. A satellite looks like a not-too-bright star but it is immediately recognizable against the background of the stars because it is moving at a steady rate.

Satellites can only be seen in the early evening. It must be dark where you are but the sun must be shining on the satellite. A satellite cannot be seen in the middle of the night because it will be in the shadow of the earth and the sun won't be shining on it.

I live at 43 degrees north so all of the satellites that I can see will be moving north-south, or mostly north-south, because they would be in a polar orbit around the earth. Satellites in an equatorial orbit, moving east-west, would likely be seen only nearer the equator.

Skylab was an orbiting space station during the 1970s. It's orbit eventually deteriorated and it burned up in the atmosphere. I saw it go over on one of it's final orbits. It looked like a bright moving star. Pieces of it were found in a remote area of Australia.

I noticed recently that a moon of Jupiter is visible with the naked eye. Just to the top left of the bright light of Jupiter, visible in the late evening, is a very dim light close to the planet. I have seen this before on the other side of the planet. It must be one of Jupiter's four major moons. Venus is also visible in the evening and is a little bit brighter than Jupiter. The way to tell the two apart is that Venus, being closer to the sun than the earth, is only visible in the evening after sunset or in the morning before sunrise. Venus, unlike Jupiter, is never visible in the middle of the night.

Here is a link to the posting "Stargazing". Satellites probably cannot be observed with a telescope because they are moving too fast.

https://markmeeksideas.blogspot.com/2024/02/stargazing.html?m=0