When I was a little kid my dad took me out to look at the sky. All I remember about it is that I wanted to see a satellite called “Sputnik” because I had heard everybody talking about it. I probably figured (in all my 4-year-old glory) I could just look up and see something moving across the sky. I probably didn’t see it that night because, let’s face it, Sputnik wasn’t much bigger than a couple of bowling balls knocked together. But, it’s possible to see satellites moving across the sky these days — no problem!

A satellite is simply an object in orbit around a larger one. That’s why we call the Moon a satellite of the Earth. Jupiter has four main satellites (moons) and Saturn has dozens.

There are more than 8,000 bits of “stuff” orbiting the Earth alone, ranging from pieces of equipment to weather and communications satellites — plus the space station and of course, the Space Shuttle when it’s on a mission. The ones we can see from Earth’s surface look like small, slowly-moving points of light. Satellites don’t usually flash (like aircraft do) and they take a minute or two to move across your field of view. If you spend any time at all looking at the stars, you’ll eventually spot a satellite. Avid satellite hunters call them space birds.

As you might expect, there are websites that talk about satellites, what they are, how to spot them, and how to identify what you’ve seen. The best is NASA’s Satellites page.

There’s also the Heaven’s Above in Germany.

And, the The Visual Observer’s Satellite Page.

So check them out, and the next time you’re stargazing, watch out for the space birds!