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Many people don't know that you can actually see some of these satellites in the sky as they pass overhead, without a telescope or anything. I made a site to he

Many people don't know that you can actually see some of these satellites in the sky as they pass overhead, without a telescope or anything. I made a site to help catch them, which has been on HN before: https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/ https://james.darpinian.com/satellites/

poopsmithe 6y ago
Thank you. I've been wanting to spot some Starlink satellites for awhile, but I haven't been able to using sites that tell azimuth & elevation with a date. I like that your site shows the satellites superimposed on google street view so I know exactly where to look. I'm going to try to spot a starlink train tonight.
walrus01 6y ago
Hey, I've had your site bookmarked for a while now. Wanted to say thanks for making it.
dmitryminkovsky 6y ago
This is mind-bendingly nice, wow. Thanks a lot.
bloopernova 6y ago
Your site is wonderful and you are also wonderful. Thank you for creating that, it's really useful!
dilyevsky 6y ago
I remember being able to see them fly over slowly when hunting in northern russia as a kid. Maybe my eyesight is not so good anymore but I doubt it’s doable within few hundred miles of any major population center today.
- modeless 6y ago
  ISS is much brighter now than any satellite you would have seen then. Sometimes it can even be seen before sunset. Other satellites sometimes get bright enough to be seen in large cities too.
daveslash 6y ago
This is bit of an off-topic question, and I realize that it might sound a bit "out there", but I'm compelled to ask and I'll take the down-votes that I deserve: Twice in my life I have seen what I believed to be a satellite make a sudden and abrupt (near instantaneous) 90-degree turn. I realize this is impossible [probably?], which is why I ask. Once was in 1992 - and I spent nearly 30 years telling myself I mis-remembered. And the second time was in 2018 while backpacking with my wife - she was a second witness and confirmed that we saw the same thing. Both times the turn occurred when directly over-head. When casually stargazing, I don't spot the satellites when they first pop up on the horizon. I usually spot them around 30-45 degrees above the horizon. One way to differentiate between an aircraft and a satellite is the blinking, but that's not always reliable - so a more reliable way is to note how quickly the "perceived" speed changes as it moves from 30-degrees towards the azimuth. The larger the change in perceived speed, the lower the altitude, while constant speed indicates orbit. In both cases, I was casually looking at the sky - I had no measurement or recording tools. In both cases I took mental note of the speed when I first spotted it and how it changed (or didn't) as it moved. I mentally noted that that both appeared to be a satellite. Obviously, a 90 degree turn is impossible (?), which leads me to guess that I may have seen an extremely high altitude, high speed, aircraft make a near 90 degree turn while reflecting sunlight shortly after sunset. This also seems to be a stretch. I hate to ask such far-fetched "I saw..." questions here, but it's been driving me nuts since 1992. All attempts at research have been fruitless. I thought maybe someone here could help?
- neolog 6y ago
  Do you know where and when it was?
  - daveslash 6y ago
    [1] 1992. I was extremely young, so I can't recall anything other than the location. In my adulthood, I can lookup the exact GPS coordinates. For privacy reasons, I'll say "Downeast Maine". It was about 1.5 hrs after sunset and I wasn't in bed, but it was dark, so I'd like to guess either the spring or fall - neither winter nor summer. I was old enough to know that you should note the change in perceived speed. It's note-worthy that Downeast Maine was not terribly far from Loring Airforce Base, which was still operating in those days. [2] March 2018, at approximately 8:30-9pm. Again, I don't recall the exact date or time, (I should have written it down immediately), but we were outside Borrego Springs, California approximately 100 miles east of San Diego. San Diego is also very close to a lot of Military bases.
neolog 6y ago
I like this a lot because it shows the distance between me and the satellite on the same scale as the distance between me and other ground locations. Otherwise it's hard to know how close/far satellites are.
tobmlt 6y ago
Great site. The easiest/laziest (in a good way! - I need a one or two click interface right now) method of finding the next star-link pass that I know of. Thank you! I take my two-year-old out satellite hunting a few times a week. He’s a big fan of Pluto but understands we can’t see it like we can some satellites, plus Venus, Saturn, Sirius, etc. Of course he’d still rather see a truck!
nbar 6y ago
Just wanted to say thank you for this. My six year old and I use it all the time.
greypowerOz 6y ago
thanks for this.. finally a tool even I can't misuse:) ps i didn't see a way to manually set a location, maybe just my old android tablet...
- modeless 6y ago
  There is a "change location" link that you can click.
rkagerer 6y ago
Cool! Many years back I made a little program that scraped HeavensAbove data and local weather, and made my phone buzz when there was about to be a bright Iridium flare overhead (just the good ones - every week or two).

poopsmithe 6y ago

Thank you. I've been wanting to spot some Starlink satellites for awhile, but I haven't been able to using sites that tell azimuth & elevation with a date. I like that your site shows the satellites superimposed on google street view so I know exactly where to look. I'm going to try to spot a starlink train tonight.

walrus01 6y ago

Hey, I've had your site bookmarked for a while now. Wanted to say thanks for making it.

dmitryminkovsky 6y ago

This is mind-bendingly nice, wow. Thanks a lot.

bloopernova 6y ago

Your site is wonderful and you are also wonderful. Thank you for creating that, it's really useful!

dilyevsky 6y ago

I remember being able to see them fly over slowly when hunting in northern russia as a kid. Maybe my eyesight is not so good anymore but I doubt it’s doable within few hundred miles of any major population center today.

modeless 6y ago
ISS is much brighter now than any satellite you would have seen then. Sometimes it can even be seen before sunset. Other satellites sometimes get bright enough to be seen in large cities too.

daveslash 6y ago

This is bit of an off-topic question, and I realize that it might sound a bit "out there", but I'm compelled to ask and I'll take the down-votes that I deserve: Twice in my life I have seen what I believed to be a satellite make a sudden and abrupt (near instantaneous) 90-degree turn. I realize this is impossible [probably?], which is why I ask. Once was in 1992 - and I spent nearly 30 years telling myself I mis-remembered. And the second time was in 2018 while backpacking with my wife - she was a second witness and confirmed that we saw the same thing. Both times the turn occurred when directly over-head. When casually stargazing, I don't spot the satellites when they first pop up on the horizon. I usually spot them around 30-45 degrees above the horizon. One way to differentiate between an aircraft and a satellite is the blinking, but that's not always reliable - so a more reliable way is to note how quickly the "perceived" speed changes as it moves from 30-degrees towards the azimuth. The larger the change in perceived speed, the lower the altitude, while constant speed indicates orbit. In both cases, I was casually looking at the sky - I had no measurement or recording tools. In both cases I took mental note of the speed when I first spotted it and how it changed (or didn't) as it moved. I mentally noted that that both appeared to be a satellite. Obviously, a 90 degree turn is impossible (?), which leads me to guess that I may have seen an extremely high altitude, high speed, aircraft make a near 90 degree turn while reflecting sunlight shortly after sunset. This also seems to be a stretch. I hate to ask such far-fetched "I saw..." questions here, but it's been driving me nuts since 1992. All attempts at research have been fruitless. I thought maybe someone here could help?

neolog 6y ago
Do you know where and when it was?
- daveslash 6y ago
  [1] 1992. I was extremely young, so I can't recall anything other than the location. In my adulthood, I can lookup the exact GPS coordinates. For privacy reasons, I'll say "Downeast Maine". It was about 1.5 hrs after sunset and I wasn't in bed, but it was dark, so I'd like to guess either the spring or fall - neither winter nor summer. I was old enough to know that you should note the change in perceived speed. It's note-worthy that Downeast Maine was not terribly far from Loring Airforce Base, which was still operating in those days. [2] March 2018, at approximately 8:30-9pm. Again, I don't recall the exact date or time, (I should have written it down immediately), but we were outside Borrego Springs, California approximately 100 miles east of San Diego. San Diego is also very close to a lot of Military bases.

neolog 6y ago

I like this a lot because it shows the distance between me and the satellite on the same scale as the distance between me and other ground locations. Otherwise it's hard to know how close/far satellites are.

tobmlt 6y ago

Great site. The easiest/laziest (in a good way! - I need a one or two click interface right now) method of finding the next star-link pass that I know of. Thank you! I take my two-year-old out satellite hunting a few times a week. He’s a big fan of Pluto but understands we can’t see it like we can some satellites, plus Venus, Saturn, Sirius, etc. Of course he’d still rather see a truck!

nbar 6y ago

Just wanted to say thank you for this. My six year old and I use it all the time.

greypowerOz 6y ago

thanks for this.. finally a tool even I can't misuse:) ps i didn't see a way to manually set a location, maybe just my old android tablet...

modeless 6y ago
There is a "change location" link that you can click.

rkagerer 6y ago

Cool! Many years back I made a little program that scraped HeavensAbove data and local weather, and made my phone buzz when there was about to be a bright Iridium flare overhead (just the good ones - every week or two).