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Satellites

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Stifler's Mom

MILF...MILF...MILF
Joined
Oct 12, 2003
Posts
5,125
SATELLITE

Had somebody ask me if I had ever seen satellites in the sky while flying. I thought he was crazy until he actually pointed some out to me.

If you ever have the opportunity to see them, I highly recommend it. I was pretty amazed at being able to see them orbiting the Earth.

I guess they are only viewable when the sun is rising and you are still flying in the dark. We were heading East as the sun was rising.
 
I have seen them several times, once on a very dark night (not flying) I counted 3-4 go by in the space of 15 minutes.
 
Can't say I watched satellites go by, but have watched the Space Station & Shuttle fly over many times.

Here is a link that provides real time satellite, Space Station, and Shuttle (when in orbit) tracking.

http://science.nasa.gov/realtime/
 
City Boy

Stifler's Mom said:
Had somebody ask me if I had ever seen satellites in the sky while flying. I thought he was crazy until he actually pointed some out to me.

You're obviously a city boy. That's ok. I am too. The first time I ever had a satellite pointed out to me I was pissey-eyed drunk in the middle of the night on the football field at ERAU PRC.

Actually that night was the first time I ever saw the Milky Way too.

But yeah, I've since seen satellites while flying.

It's the Green Flash I'm still waiting to see.
 
mar said:
It's the Green Flash I'm still waiting to see.

I grew up on the island of hawai'i... a place that you expect to see the green flash often. I only remember seeing it being *really* green once.
 
Satelites can be seen from sundown to sunup(nightly occurance for us)...the space station is cool as well...Northern lights can be just amazing at 3 am, all the colors you can imagine, and shooting over you like wildfire.

Wait till you see the rotating satelites, they look like a strobe light as they catch the light every few seconds...I have talked with a few fellow pilots who actually asked ATC if they had traffic, of course ATC then begins to freak out because they cannot locate that "traffic" on their screens. Myself, i don't think i would actually ask if they were traffic, you can tell they are WAYYYY out there, and couldn't possibly be another a/c.
 
I can't remember which way they go but I read somewhere that spy sats. go north and south and commercial ones go east and west or vice versa.

Counselair
 
That's true... if the orbital plane is aligned North/South (high inclination) they "sweep" through every latitude each orbit, and since the Earth rotates, every orbit they "sweep" through a new slice, and in a 12 hour period they have covered all of Earth's surface, and can see everybody's dirty secrets.

Orbiting East/West (low inclinatin) can allow a geosynchronous orbit, which is useful for communications and weather satellites.
 

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