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[Galaxy]

I know absolutely nothing about astronomy so I'm relying on all of you to help with my silly questions. I've been doing a lot of star gazing lately. I thought I saw a satellite or space station moving from south to north. My husband thinks they only move east and west. Do you know what direction they go? Thanks

[Centaur]

galaxy said:

I know absolutely nothing about astronomy so I'm relying on all of you to help with my silly questions. I've been doing a lot of star gazing lately. I thought I saw a satellite or space station moving from south to north. My husband thinks they only move east and west. Do you know what direction they go? Thanks

Very few artificial satellites move across your sky from east to west. More commonly they move generally from west to east. Some move from south to north or the reverse. Many seem to be moving diagonally. Communications satellites appear to remain in one place. I'm sure that our resident artificial satellite spotter, Rocketman, will be along soon to fill you in with more information. He'll probably be able to tell you exactly which satellite you observed, if you provide him with a more detailed description.

[Rocketman]

Thank you for the nice introduction Centaur, I owe you one. ;D

To avoid confusion about satellite orbits, I'll be brief.

As Centaur already pointed out, a very large number of satellites travel North to South, South to North, and West to East. There are some that travel in the opposite direction (East to West), those are retrograde.

I've been trying to spot some of these lately, and I find it hard to do without my telescope. Most of the retrograde satellites are rocket debris.

>>>Galaxy wrote: "I thought I saw a satellite or space station moving from south to north."

Always write down details immediately, if possible. I like to identify objects no matter where they are. Also I recommend using a compass to determine which way is North, if you don't have one you can get a cheapy at Wal-Mart, and it will do the trick.

A few days ago I made the following animation to illustrate a typical five minute period of satellites in my field of view.


img.photobucket.com/albums/v624/MetalheadRocketeer/orbitronanimation.gif - 243 KB

As you see, they generally travel in the directions specified above. If you look to the Southeast part of the radar you will see OV1-4, that is a satellite in a retrograde orbit.

I currently maintain a file of orbital data for over 900 satellites. If you will give me the details I can tell you which satellite it is.


Hope this helps