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The Question
(Submitted May 05, 1997)
I'd like to find a list of visible satellites in the evening sky. I
understand that there may be many, but I'm certain that several obvious
ones would be noticeable.
The Answer
From any point on Earth, there are many visible satellites that pass over
each night. Which satellites are visible, and when and where they appear,
has to be calculated knowing the date and the location of the observer.
There are programs available to do these calculations, such as OrbiTrack
for the Macintosh. Go to your favorite shareware and public domain site
(e.g. www.shareware.com) and search for 'satellite'.
You will also need a list of current satellite 'elements' which describe
the orbits of each satellite. These are provided by T. S. Kelso at
ftp://archive.afit.af.mil/pub/space/
The file tle.new has the most recent elements available, while the data for
the Mir space station is in mir.tle . (tle stands for 'two line elements',
because all the data for a satellite is written on two lines.)
With a program and a fresh data file (they lose accuracy after a few weeks)
you can get a list of visible satellite passes in your area.
David Palmer
for Ask a High-Energy Astronomer
Questions on this topic are no longer responded to by the "Ask a
High-Energy Astronomer" service. See http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/ask_an_astronomer.html
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