Look, up in the sky, it's the ISS

[Richard]

Here's a link to the NASA tracker. Change the URL to your state.

http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realda...n.cgi?country=United_States&region=California

 

[AuntPeggy]

I've never gone to look for a satellite. Would you use binoculars?

State names in the URL are case sensitive. Link 2-word names with an underscore: http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realda...ion.cgi?country=United_States&region=New_York

 

[silver-eagle]

I've never gone to look for a satellite. Would you use binoculars?

State names in the URL are case sensitive. Link 2-word names with an underscore: http://spaceflight1.nasa.gov/realda...ion.cgi?country=United_States&region=New_York

You could but probably not necessary. If the object is big enough, you should be able to see it; much like a star or a planet. Binoculars or a telescope would provide better definition.

 

[tonycondon]

its visible to the naked eye, although I have personally never seen it Matt watched the shuttle and ISS fly formation shortly after separation before reentry. Lucky!

 

[fgcason]

I've never gone to look for a satellite. Would you use binoculars?

It's much easier to spot them naked eye. Binoculars and especially telescopes have a tight field of view and you tend to miss them entirely. Tracking with a telescope is annoying at best since they cross a huge section of sky in a short time period.

Just go out on a dark night and look up. There are lots of easily spottable satellites. (look for stuff in polar orbit) They look kind of weird compared to most things, almost a high airliner type looking dot or meteor, however their motion is very very steady if that makes any sense. They're usually visible for about 10-15 deg off vertical. The HST starts out dim, gets a lot brighter for a couple seconds then the solar panels flash really bright for a second as it crosses directly overhead.

 

[deafsound]

Also, you more likely to see satellites an hour after sunset or an hour before sunrise.

 

[ScottM]

You can see a lot of space stuff with the naked eye. I have seen satellites, shuttle, one of the Apollos, and MIR (when it was up)

 

[AuntPeggy]

Probably not, though. The glow from NYC always colors my night sky red.

 

[Frank Browne]

It's much easier to spot them naked eye. Binoculars and especially telescopes have a tight field of view and you tend to miss them entirely. Tracking with a telescope is annoying at best since they cross a huge section of sky in a short time period.

Just go out on a dark night and look up. There are lots of easily spottable satellites. (look for stuff in polar orbit) They look kind of weird compared to most things, almost a high airliner type looking dot or meteor, however their motion is very very steady if that makes any sense. They're usually visible for about 10-15 deg off vertical. The HST starts out dim, gets a lot brighter for a couple seconds then the solar panels flash really bright for a second as it crosses directly overhead.

I would add that the best times for viewing satilites is for about 1 1/2 hours after sunset and about the same amount of time before sunrise. Otherwise the satilite will be in the Earth's shadow cone.