From: Tim/Joan Merrill (tmerrill@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Dec 09 2000 - 10:59:46 PST
From: "Tim/Joan Merrill" <tmerrill@hotmail.com> Subject: Satellites Date: Sat, 09 Dec 2000 18:59:46 -0000 Message-ID: <F52PZrIkyPzGNsokLQ800000f54@hotmail.com>
I have a question that I've been puzzling for a while. It concerns the
satellites we see crossing our skies at night.
My understanding is that we can see them because they reflect sunlight to
our eyes. I also understand that most of the ones we see are in relatively
low orbits ( 100 - 600 km ). This would seem to put them in Earth's shadow
for a LARGE part of the orbit. Certainly around the middle of the night we
should see none of these satellites. Yet it seems that I have seen
satellites later in the evening than my "analysis" would predict. Since I
live in the middle of the Bay Area, my "seeing" is severely compromised by
light pollution, and most of my satellites are seen on visits to friends in
the mountains in the summer. Does anyone live with actual dark skies and
have you seen satellites maybe 4 or 5 hours after/before daylight? If I am
right, seeing the Space Station may be more rare than I had hoped, because
the thing has to both be above me in its orbit and at a time within a couple
hours of daylight!
Any thoughts from the assembled minds??
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