337 Walnut Rd, Bickley 6076,
Western Australia.
Tel: 08 9293 8255
Fax: 08 9293 8138
Info line:08 9293 8109
updated: 2009/01/28
Artificial Satellites are generally visible for a few hours after sunset and a few hours before sunrise as they reflect sunlight off their highly reflective outer surfaces. Around midnight low-Earth orbiting satellites (the majority) are not visible because they are in Earth's shadow. Most satellites are launched in a roughly West to East orbit as this has the lowest fuel requirements. This is also the trajectory of most of the space junk that glows on re-entry into the atmosphere. Space junk re-entries have orbits essentially parallel with the ground so they last for a longer duration and can be viewed along a long path across the Earth. Weather and reconnaissance satellites can orbit North to South (or vice versa) in order to get a longer duration view of the Earth.
The visibility of most low Earth orbit satellites extends across a region about 1,000km wide around the point on the Earth's surface where the satellite appears directly overhead. Furthermore, satellites are harder to detect close to the horizon because their reflected sunlight suffers greater absorption as it travels through a greater thickness of the atmosphere.
The following links are provided by heavens-above.com.
The largest, and one of the brightest, satellites in the sky is the International Space Station. For viewing opportunities over the next 10 days select your viewing location from the following list.
Note: times are given in WA Standard Time. You will need to add 1 hour during daylight saving time.
For viewing opportunities over the next day select your viewing location from the following list.
Note: times are given in WA Standard Time. You will need to add 1 hour during daylight saving time.
Iridium mobile communication satellites have one highly reflecting surface and when the geometry is favourable can be observed as a slow flash of bright light that builds up to a maximum in about 5 seconds, and then fades over a similar time. About one of these flashes is visible from any location on the Earth every night, and about once per month a flash about ten times brighter than Venus provides a spectacular sight.
Note: an iridium flash is only visible in a region about 30km across, and is much fainter on the periphery of the flash region.
For viewing opportunities over the next 7 days select your viewing location from the following list.
Note: times are given in WA Standard Time. You will need to add 1 hour during daylight saving time.
For other locations find the http://www.heavens-above.com website, input your specific site, and bookmark for your location.
337 Walnut Rd,