Have you ever seen a tiny little lights moving slowly across the sky? They are satellites and they move across the sky in about one or two minutes. Since 1957 countries have launched thousands of satellites to orbit the planet. Some of those satellites have already powered off and dropped to the atmosphere in which they have burned. Some of those satellites are still there, operating or not. In early 2000 there were about 9500 items orbiting the Earth. Most of those are satellites, but also the debris of rockets.

Satellites can be seen best during tow hours right after sun set and before sun rise. During the midnight satellites cannot be seen because on that time they do not reflect sun light. As the night begins, the satellites orbiting on low levels disappear first and then those orbiting on upper levels. Satellites you can see in night sky have different speeds and magnitudes. Satellites orbiting on lover levels usually move faster than those located in upper layers. Most of the satellites move in West-East direction.

For long we were able to observe the Russian space station MIR travelling in the sky, but few years ago it was drawn down to Earth and it was destroyed. Now we can observe the International Space Station (ISS) and space shuttles docking to the station. Right now the space shuttle Atlantis is on its way to ISS.

More interesting targets to observe provide the Iridium satellites that have been launched since 1997. Iridium satellites have big antennas that can cause a flash that lasts up to 10 seconds. The flash of an Iridium satellite can be as bright as half moon. In order to see such a flash, you need to predict the passing of the satellite. This can be done in Heavens-Above.Com.

Satellites and space stations are not the only targets to observe. Every now and then space debris drops into the atmosphere causing a phenomenon similar to meteorite. Dropping debris can also look colorful due to various colorful devices of the debris. In some countries like Finland people can have a chance observe rocket launches. Finland is located close to rocket centers in Russia, Sweden and Norway. Sometimes when a rocket is launched we can observe it from Finland. Sometimes we can also observe the water vapor of the rocket. Last time I saw a large water vapor in the night sky was in September 1998 in Lapland in Finland. That vapor was left by a Russian rocket launched only few hundred kilometers away from my location.

There are lots of wonderful things to observe in the sky. Just keep your eye open!