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> Old Karp was usually delighted by the latest innovations that the scientists brought up from their camp, and though he steadfastly refused to believe that man
by Florin_Andrei 14y ago
> Old Karp was usually delighted by the latest innovations that the scientists brought up from their camp, and though he steadfastly refused to believe that man had set foot on the moon, he adapted swiftly to the idea of satellites. The Lykovs had noticed them as early as the 1950s, when "the stars began to go quickly across the sky," and Karp himself conceived a theory to explain this: "People have thought something up and are sending out fires that are very like stars."
WOW.
- saalweachter 14y agoIt makes me a little jealous of the quality of sky they must have had.
- blhack 14y agoWe used to be able to see these from my backyard in Northern Minnesota too.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- aleyan 14y agoThe first and the last time I have observed satellites in the sky was about 20 years ago in Kirov Oblast (Russia). They were fainter than the brightest stars but still distinctly visible with a few crawling across the sky at a given time. The area was rural then but not completely desolate with several villages within 10k radius. There should be large areas of the US where there is comparable or lower level light pollution than in Kirov Oblast. Depending on where you live such an area might be only a few hours drive away.
- saalweachter 14y agoI actually have a patch of black sky lined up already, just got to wait for the stars to align: weekend, no clouds, no moon, when I can afford to drive somewhere in the wee hours of the morning and back the next day. But honestly, the tradeoffs I would have to make to move somewhere with even blue sky or green sky at this particular point in my life are large enough that they might as well be in Siberia. And I expect it to get worse as I age and entrench. Hence, a bit of jealousy.
- jlgreco 14y agoI've been able to see the ISS from atop a building in downtown Philadelphia. If you know where/when to look, it is very easy to see even with very bad light pollution.
- Someone 14y agoIt isn't that hard to see satellites in the sky. The ISS, in particular, can be very bright, to the point where you can see it in daylight (http://www.hobbyspace.com/SatWatching/ http://www.hobbyspace.com/SatWatching/, http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2009/06/18/how-to-see-the-iss-in-broad-daylight/ http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2009/06/18/how-to-se...) The 1950 ones would have been a lot harder to spot, of course, but might at times have reflected the light of the below-the-horizon sun.
- doomlaser 14y agoThere weren't any man made satellites until 1957. And I don't think there were any that stayed up for very long until the mid to late 60s/70s, though I could be wrong on that.
- caf 14y agoThe fourth artificial satellite, Vanguard 1, was launched on 17th March 1958 and is still in orbit.
- jlgreco 14y agoIn fact, aside from the Moon, the ISS is the brighest object in the night sky. Brighter than Sirius, and even brighter than any of the planets including Venus.
- amolsarva 14y agoI have seen the ISS. In New York city! Flying past the tops of buildings. http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/ http://spotthestation.nasa.gov/
- conradfr 14y agoCool application ! And done with Bootstrap ;)
- incision 14y agoYeah, I can only imagine. Though, my own recently re-ignited interest in astronomy has taught me that you can actually see quite a bit, including satellites in even thoroughly light polluted areas as my back yard rates red on these charts [1]. 1: http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/ http://www.jshine.net/astronomy/dark_sky/
- ryankshaw 14y agowow, reading this and it's replies was somewhat surprising to me in the opposite way. I live in Utah, if I walked out to my back yard right now, given a little time, I could spot at least a couple satellites. I guess I just took it for granted that other places aren't like that. It makes sense now why all the rangers in the national parks here like to point out how dark our sky is.
- i386 14y agoThey are pretty easy to spot. I point them out to my boyfriend all the time and he refuses to believe they are satellites, rather high altitude airplanes.
- gpvos 14y agoI'm surprised that apparently so few of you can see satellites going across the sky. I live in Amsterdam and can see a few bright satellites somewhat regularly with the naked eye. What I'm surprised about is that they came up with the theory of "man-made fires" all by themselves.
- saalweachter 14y agoJust to clarify: Yes, you can see a number of satellites from even the densest urban areas. I could usually see three planets from Manhattan. But I never once had the desire to go lie in Central Park after dark and stare at the sky. Compared to that, even yellow sky is amazing. I frequently find myself stopping on the way from the car to the house at night to stare at the sky, and I think to myself: "And this sky isn't even that good." So I hear about this family, isolated, zero light pollution, probably far enough north for good Northern lights, and it's no wonder to me that they would have noticed satellites. How could they not be staring at the night sky constantly? It must be heart-achingly beautiful there.
- vidarh 14y agoKeep in mind that the idea of man-made objects in the sky dates back thousands of years in myths and religious stories. And he might very well have at least passing knowledge of the ideas from contemporary descriptions inspired by the writings of Tsiolkovsky on exploration of space starting from 1903 or so onwards, or any number of other sources.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]