Loading ...Several hundred spacecraft now orbit around our planet. Many of those in low earth orbit (LEO) are bright enough to be seen by the naked eye as they streak across the night sky.
Some of the largest spacecraft, such as the shuttle and the Mir space station, have even been imaged by amateur telescopes with considerable detail.
Satellite watchers are those people who stay tunned on the sky above to watch satellites, and other human-made things.
The first and most essential step in observing spacecraft is obviously to know when and where to look. There are now many satellite tracking programs, both online and offline, that can give you the sky coordinates for a given object at a given time and location.
The easiest way to get started perhaps is to use the Heavens Above online program to find the time and coordinates of satellites that are passing over your location tonight.
TOOLS
Google Maps Tools
The Google Map system can be used by outsiders to develop interesting utilities with it. Here are Google map based tools that track satellites:
- Real Time Satellite Tracking - www.n2yo.com
- DogstarRadio.com Sirius Radio Satellite and Repeater Map
- Dick’s Rocket Dungeon: Real-time satellite tracking in a Google Maps mashup
NASA
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