zlacker

>>alden5+(OP)
I sit in my hot tub at night and see 1-2+ satellites go over every single time I'm out there.

Which also makes me wonder how many of the shooting stars I've seen recently are just old starlinks burning up.

>>latchk+Vx5
How do you spot a satellite? I've never seen one.

>>gnrlst+2B5
To me, they look like little white dots moving across the sky. Brightness can change as they move too. It'll start off bright and then as it goes away it eventually disappears entirely. Since I usually sit in the same position in the hot tub, I've come to notice that I usually see one of them cross a pretty specific path from north to south, so I've gotten used to looking in that part of the sky as I'm sitting there. It happens so frequently, I get a little disappointed if I don't see one!

Planes are similar, but tend to have flashing or colored lights and obviously aren't as far away.

I'm in a big city, but close to the ocean so I have a bit less light pollution. The city is also heavy military, so that could be part of the frequency.

Update: if you're near any of the spacex launches, you can watch the rocket too. I'm house sitting in Irvine, CA and saw the Monday launch go right near the house. Amazing to watch the plume from the rocket!

>>latchk+PB5
I guess they disappear as they approach the horizon because the light is spread/absorbed too much by going through more atmosphere?

>>aqfamn+OC5
I actually see them disappear long before they get to the horizon. My guess is just less reflected light on whatever is shiny on the satellite.

>>latchk+gD5
that and/or entering the Earth penumbra.

>>m2fkxy+ND5
In higschool we did an experiment with one of our science teachers based on this fact. We measured the duratuon of the iridum flares and could use some basic geometry to estimate how high their orbit is based on where the shadow of the earth is.

I don’t remember the details anymore, but it was one of the coolest practical experiments we did.