WEBVTT - Is there any way to see satellites that are in orbit?

0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.800
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff from house Stuff Works dot com where

0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:14.840
<v Speaker 1>smart Happens. Hi Am Marshall Brain with today's question, is

0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.360
<v Speaker 1>there any way to see satellites that are in orbit?

0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.280
<v Speaker 1>If you are a neighbor has a satellite dish sitting

0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:25.480
<v Speaker 1>in the yard to pick up television signals, then you

0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:29.240
<v Speaker 1>know where at least one orbiting satellite is located. The

0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:34.040
<v Speaker 1>dish is pointed right at it. TV satellites unfortunately live

0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:38.760
<v Speaker 1>in geosecretous orbits approximately twenty two thousand miles away, so

0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:41.440
<v Speaker 1>it's impossible to see them unless you have a really

0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:46.080
<v Speaker 1>big telescope. However, there are lots of satellites that pass

0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.440
<v Speaker 1>overhead in a syncretous orbits, and there are only two

0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:52.360
<v Speaker 1>hundred or three hundred miles away. If you live in

0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:56.720
<v Speaker 1>a place that has a very clear sky where for example,

0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.560
<v Speaker 1>you can see the Milky Way at night, simply lie

0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:02.760
<v Speaker 1>on your back on a moonless night and look carefully.

0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:06.520
<v Speaker 1>Occasionally you'll see something that looks like a star, but

0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:11.160
<v Speaker 1>it's moving. That's a satellite. This technique works especially well

0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:13.960
<v Speaker 1>on a boat in the Caribbean close to the equator.

0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.760
<v Speaker 1>The International Space Station is so large that it's extremely

0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:21.760
<v Speaker 1>easy to see. You just need to know when to look.

0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:25.319
<v Speaker 1>There are many satellite tracking sites on the web that

0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:28.240
<v Speaker 1>will tell you when and where to look. Jump into

0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:31.319
<v Speaker 1>Google and you can find them. Do you have any

0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:35.039
<v Speaker 1>ideas or suggestions for this podcast? If so, please send

0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:38.319
<v Speaker 1>me an email at podcast at how stuff works dot com.

0:01:38.480 --> 0:01:40.720
<v Speaker 1>For more on this and thousands of other topics, go

0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:43.640
<v Speaker 1>to how stuff works dot com and be sure to

0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:45.920
<v Speaker 1>check out the brain stuff blog on the how stuff

0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:47.240
<v Speaker 1>works dot com home page.