Wow, go outside now ......

[Sporran]

Great photo, kas! I can just picture ET and companion cycling in front of the moon! ;-)

[Yvonne]

Hello Tugmistress, I asked my husband who is an expert in this field and here listed are relevant points...

1. Cannot be reflected sunlight, because we only see them in the dark, well after the sun has set.

2. Wouldn't be able to see them (too small for resolution of human eye).

3. They would need to be about 3x quicker than they are in order to get around the World in the correct time.

4. Before firing powerful lasers into the sky, researchers have to send their coordinates to a US government agency to determine if any satellites may be affected. This would not really be necessary if you could just see them.

Hope you find this useful.

[gleeber]

1. Cannot be reflected sunlight, because we only see them in the dark, well after the sun has set.

Many years ago, whilst working in an isolated part of the West coast of Scotland I used to do some sky watching and regularly saw these satellites passing overhead. I seem to recall we used to see them come back round after 90 minutes.
I'm no expert Yvonne, but I was always under the impression these things were satellites. Perhaps your husband could say more about the phenomenon.
I'm also confused about the reflected sunlight part. We only see the moon in its glory when it's dark. Is that not reflected sunlight?

[JAWS]

Gleeber, you are not alone. I too was in my usual state of total confusion for a while. I think that somewhere the thread moved from the Moon to Satellites. I would guess that the post is in answer to a query made earlier.

One thing I am absolutely certain of is that I definitely can’t see the Moon tonight. Caithness disappears after about 200 yards or meters, whichever you prefer.
I tried shouting but I didn’t get any replies so the whole world may have disappeared.

[canuck]

Gleeber, you are not alone. I too was in my usual state of total confusion for a while. I think that somewhere the thread moved from the Moon to Satellites. I would guess that the post is in answer to a query made earlier.

One thing I am absolutely certain of is that I definitely can’t see the Moon tonight. Caithness disappears after about 200 yards or meters, whichever you prefer.
I tried shouting but I didn’t get any replies so the whole world may have disappeared.

No Jaws, the world has not disappeared. We are all still here.

I have been slowly catching up on all the threads I have missed these past few weeks. I have been totally enchanted by this one. Thanks everyone for your contributions.

[Ricco]

Gleeber, you are not alone. I too was in my usual state of total confusion for a while. I think that somewhere the thread moved from the Moon to Satellites. I would guess that the post is in answer to a query made earlier.

One thing I am absolutely certain of is that I definitely can’t see the Moon tonight. Caithness disappears after about 200 yards or meters, whichever you prefer.
I tried shouting but I didn’t get any replies so the whole world may have disappeared.

Hmm, that makes me wonder - where were you? Sounds like you had either gone underground (200 yards) or out to sea, but in the latter case Caithness would still be visible. Hmm - have to think about that one.

[JAWS]

Hmm, that makes me wonder - where were you? Sounds like you had either gone underground (200 yards) or out to sea, but in the latter case Caithness would still be visible. Hmm - have to think about that one.

No, nothing as drastic as that. Just a very thick sea fog drifted in over the cliffs.

[Yvonne]

Many years ago, whilst working in an isolated part of the West coast of Scotland I used to do some sky watching and regularly saw these satellites passing overhead. I seem to recall we used to see them come back round after 90 minutes.
I'm no expert Yvonne, but I was always under the impression these things were satellites. Perhaps your husband could say more about the phenomenon.
I'm also confused about the reflected sunlight part. We only see the moon in its glory when it's dark. Is that not reflected sunlight?

Gleeber, I asked my husband about the moon and this is his reply: "Telecoms satellites are typically at an altitude of 250 mls, which is small when compared to the radius of the World (~4,000 mls). On the other hand the Moon is thought to be about 250,000 mls, or 1,000 times further from the dark side of the World than a LEO satellite. The World would not stop sunlight hitting the Moon, but would prevent sunlight hitting most satellites."

[Tugmistress]

Gleeber, I asked my husband about the moon and this is his reply: "Telecoms satellites are typically at an altitude of 250 mls, which is small when compared to the radius of the World (~4,000 mls). On the other hand the Moon is thought to be about 250,000 mls, or 1,000 times further from the dark side of the World than a LEO satellite. The World would not stop sunlight hitting the Moon, but would prevent sunlight hitting most satellites."

Hi Yvonne,
I posed this query on another forum I belong to for clarification, you may be interested in the response i got which i have copied and pasted below

.......

The ‘shooters’ can only be meteorites blazing trails across the sky as they burn up in the atmosphere. They usually travel very fast – simply a streak of light, but sometimes they seem to dawdle – it all depends on their angle of approach.

Slower lights (the ‘movers’) must be satellites – planets do move, but not sufficiently fast to be seen to do so by the naked eye. A satellite in earth orbit can be seen as it catches the sunlight but every so often they pass into the earth’s shadow – and simply disappear.

I would well recommend a great site where you can find the times of visible orbits of a number of earth satellites – as well as the International Space Station (which is obviously a satellite too).

Try http://www.heavens-above.com

Follow the instructions (you don’t even have to sign in) and get sky maps galore. If you select your satellite and find its appearances, then click on the Ground Track. That will show you the ‘easy’ way to spot a satellite – and it’ll also show you when and where your chosen satellite will pass into the earth’s shadow and disappear.

‘Shooters’ aren’t so easy to predict but they tend to come in swarms as the earth passed through assorted left-over debris, often from comets. Hence the only guides to spotting them are meteor shower timetables.

Try http://stardate.org – as good as any other site.

Enough information there, without it getting complicated and going into too much detail.

Enjoy your sky-watching.

[Yvonne]

Thanks, Tugmistress.

We have tried sites like the ones you mention, though without any real success. Still, we'll keep trying.