how do you find information on satellites passing through?

[lennoxlude]

i had a great night observing tonight, the best one so far with my bino's. even saw a shooting star. i saw two satellites tonight, and i would love to know what they are, or if i can find out when another one is coming.

is there any information?

thanks guys.

[LukeSkywatcher]

If you know the time and date you can find out what they were here: Heavens-Above Home Page

Satellites crossing the sky are as common as buses. You dont see one for 30 mins and then 5 come along at the same time. It takes a while to be able to spot them but once you have seen enough of them you will be able to spot them in the corner of your eye while observing the night sky.

If you really like them (as i do).............check out the "Iridium flare" satellite predictions over the next couple of days from your location. Irridium flares are quite something to see. You think they are a star going supernova right infront of your eyes..............then they vanish.

Hope this helps.

[Dicky de Builder]

Would also add that the stellarium update has satallite info added to it. This is a free download.

As a start try the looking for the iss with shuttle docking soon should be bright. I use this site for obsy times.

Human Space Flight (HSF) - Orbital Tracking

Cheers

[AndyH]

Would also add that the stellarium update has satallite info added to it. This is a free download.

As a start try the looking for the iss with shuttle docking soon should be bright. I use this site for obsy times.

Human Space Flight (HSF) - Orbital Tracking

Cheers

Yup.

That's a nice feature on Stellarium.

Andy.

[lennoxlude]

i just can't find any information on the sattelites that passed. so far none passed at that time, but it was a satellite. i'll have to carry on looking.

thanks for the advice and links guys.

[lennoxlude]

also this new stellarium.. how do you find the satellites on it? thanks.

[Teddy]

What's an iridium flair ??

[AndyH]

With stellarium running, click F2. This will bring up the configuration box. Click on 'satellites', then go down and tick the box and press configure. Resart Stellarium. If the satellites are not already up, go down to the stellarium task bar and click on the satellites icon.

Cheers,

Andy.

[AndyH]

Iridium Flares - couple of links.

Iridium Flares

Heavens-Above Home Page

Cheers,

Andy.

[Daz1969]

Dude, I have just downloaded a fab piece of freeware called Orbitron.

Its got about 3000 objects listed and you can update the TLE files direct from norad.

You should check it out.

Daz:headbang:

[Glider]

Google for TrakStar or WXSat. You can use them to listen to NOAA weather sats with a radio scanner and software which lets you see their imaging.

Get the latest orbital data TLE's as mentioned by DAZ1969.