simple satellite question?

hello everybody, hope everyone is still hanging in there. I dont know if this is the right spot to ask a question like this so forgive me if ive made a mistake.

I live in AZ about 30 minutes away from sedona, the night sky here is usually very clear and bright so im used to seeing meteorites and satellites all the time. if you stand outside here at night and look up you will see at least one meteor every hour and thats -- at least-- and there is always a satellite somewhere going across the sky, so Im kind of familiar with these kinds of sightings in my area.


anyways here is the question,,, Can satellites become very bright for a second and then no light at all? its kind of hard to explain, I will see a regular looking satellite looking object cruising at the usual speed they seem to go and then all of a sudden it shines like a star for just a very short time, probably right at a second, and after it goes out you cant see anything, like its just gone. I dont know if its just something that I never noticed until now, or if it something new happening.?? all I know is that I never used to see satellites do that,,, or is it U.F.O

If any body has seen the same thing, Ill at least know im not seeing things

just to let people know I wish I had a good enough camera to show you what im talking about, it would probably be fairly hard to capture on film but i bet it could be done, sadly though all i have is a cell phone cam, and we all know how useful those are,

reply to post by KommonKnowledge


Yep, satellites do that. They appear to fade away as the move out of the light from the sun.

reply to post by KommonKnowledge


depending on the position of the sun yes it can.Your seeing reflections of sun light off the satellite if it travels to far behind the earths shadow no sunlight.

reply to post by KommonKnowledge


Hmm, I don't know much about satellites but I did a quick search for you.

www.twallace.net...

Iridium Flashes

The Motorola Iridium satellites, designed to relay cell telephone conversations, have caused a lot of excitement in visual observing circles. These things predictably flash to incredible brightness. I am including predictions of some of these which I expect may flash pretty bright over part of the pass, even though they are a relatively small satellite and very difficult to see without binoculars when not flashing. This is discussed further in my Iridium notes.

Otherwise it seems like they don't flash, they stay at constant brightness but reflect the sun. So I guess if they move they can change brightness.

[edit on 7/31/2009 by ravenshadow13]

Well last night i was looking at the stars because we finally had a clear sky over here in UK and i saw what looked like a star get real bright then go dull again it was moving but when it went dull i lost track of it.
I honestly do not know what it was.

THANKYOU

thanks for the quick responses, I knew people were going to say the sun reflecting is what it is, that could be but it definitely sounds more like the iridium flashes that I have never heard about until now, it fits that discription very well,, thanks.


being as it came up Im gonna ask another question since you all are so kind to answer, its possible for the sun to reflect off of things on the night time side of earth???


thanks again for the answers,

peace and love

reply to post by KommonKnowledge

Because satellites are high above the surface of the earth it is possible for them to be in sunlight while the surface is in darkness. This crude diagram shows what I mean. The areas marked 1 and 2 are in darkness but satellites above them are still in sunlight and can visible. So satellites can reflect sunlight for a couple of hours after sunset and before sunrise.




[edit on 7/31/2009 by Phage]

Hey there, KK. (boy, glad I didn't add another one of them)

My wife, the kids and I saw something a lot like what you described a little over a month ago.

I looked like a satellite, but then it grew really bright several times. I thought it was the iridium flares I read about on here. It was really pretty cool though.

We all five blinked our flashlights at it and it seemed to respond to us, by growing brighter. I know it didn't, but it was still a lot of fun. It did this about four times in the span of about 35 degrees. It stayed constant in it's direction...South to North.

Did yours get brighter off and on, or just once?

reply to post by KSPigpen

I've more than impressed my friends by saying "Watch this!", making magical movements with my hands and pointing at a spot in the sky. Suddenly a very bright "star" appears for a few seconds then fades away. I wish I was better at keeping a straight face but I always end up having to walk away laughing and they catch on pretty quick.

How do I do it? All it takes is an accurate watch.
www.heavens-above.com...
(Iridium Flares)

[edit on 7/31/2009 by Phage]

reply to post by KSPigpen


Im glad to hear other people saying they see this, I thought my vision was messing up or something for a while. to answer your question it was just one bright flash but I have seen it happen more then one time in one night but with two different satellites. it seems like the past two to three weeks ive seen more than usual , but its probably just me. Ive been seeing more meteors all of a sudden to, but im pretty sure thats related to the meteor shower thats happening. sure is beautiful


and to Phage

thanks for the diagram, makes perfect sense.
Im gonna get one more question in, I know this has been talked about before but I couldnt find it using search, but when im watching nasa tv or see space pictures of the earth from the moon there is never any stars, do they just edit them out to keep more focus on the main object, or do they have specific cameras that dont detect the stars so all you can see is the earth or what ever object it is. ? hopfully somebody understands what question it is im trying to ask, because Im not the best with wording.




thanks everyone, have a great day

reply to post by KommonKnowledge

It's a common question (but off topic). The reason we don't often see stars in images from space is because, even in space, stars are very dim in comparison to the Earth. Just as on the surface, they don't really show up in "daylight". If the exposure of the image were set so that the stars showed up, the Earth would be over exposed and motion blurred. Like in these images:




[edit on 7/31/2009 by Phage]