How many satilites?

Duff

Does anyone know roughly how many satilites pass over the country on an average night? And do different satilites move at different speeds in orbit? Reason im asking is because last night I was out looking at the sky for over an hour and the amount of objects I seen moving at speeds and directions no aircraft could do was amazing! I'd say in total I seen circa 25 different objects (not shooting stars etc). Most moved quickly across the whole sky but there was 2 or 3 that moved then stopped then would shoot up at a right angle and start moving again!:eek:

Honda08

Duff wrote: »

Does anyone know roughly how many satilites pass over the country on an average night? And do different satilites move at different speeds in orbit? Reason im asking is because last night I was out looking at the sky for over an hour and the amount of objects I seen moving at speeds and directions no aircraft could do was amazing! I'd say in total I seen circa 25 different objects (not shooting stars etc). Most moved quickly across the whole sky but there was 2 or 3 that moved then stopped then would shoot up at a right angle and start moving again!:eek:

loads!
a different iridium ( satellite phone network ) satellite passes over Ireland every 8 minutes. its amazing being able to make a call from anywhere on earth, with Iridium! also iridium satellites are known to flare, ie they reflect the sun back to earth, when sunlight hits their arrays.
most non geostationery satellites pass once round the earth every 90 minutes ish...

The Hill Billy

The following satellites (to magnitude 4.5) are visible from the Dundalk area from midday to 01:00 tomorrow morning according to [url]www.heavens-above.com:[/url]

Name Mag Time Alt. Az.

Radarsat 4.4 16:52:57 10° SE
Cosmos 1544 3.8 16:53:43 10° N
Cosmos 1908 3.9 17:02:19 10° NNW
Cosmos 2297 3.4 17:14:51 10° NNW
Cosmos 1626 4.4 17:15:34 10° NNW
Lacrosse 4 4.2 17:21:27 10° W
Spot 4 4.1 17:22:06 10° SE
Lacrosse 3 2.8 17:26:55 10° W
Cosmos 1869 4.4 17:27:53 10° NNW
Cosmos 1151 3.8 17:32:12 10° N
Cosmos 1943 4.2 17:32:51 10° SSE
Cosmos 1437 3.9 17:34:55 10° NNW
Lacrosse 4 4.0 17:50:41 10° SE
Cosmos 1825 4.4 17:51:21 10° NNW
Okean 3 4.4 18:16:25 10° N
Cosmos 2058 4.4 18:21:24 10° S
Cosmos 1378 4.0 18:36:46 10° SSW
Cosmos 2322 4.4 18:38:27 10° SSE
Cosmos 1697 3.9 18:46:29 10° S
Cosmos 1300 4.5 18:49:19 10° NNW
SL-08 RB 4.4 18:59:08 40° SE
Lacrosse 3 2.5 19:08:49 10° WNW
Cosmos 1943 3.8 19:15:43 10° SW
Lacrosse 4 3.1 19:27:29 10° SW
Cosmos 1980 4.3 20:03:28 10° SSW

Duff

Cheers for the link. Interesting site that.

Capt'n Midnight

satellites vary in speed

ISS and other low earth orbit start off at about 90 minutes
the higher up you go the longer it takes
12 hours would be for GPS

Geosynch don't appear to move

and I doubt you'd see these 12 hour ones from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molniya_orbit

there are also lots of pieces of space debris out there too