Ask Clay: Is the Google Earth satellite visible with the naked eye?
Is the Google Earth satellite visible to the naked eye from Earth like the International Space Station?
Now I know this next part is a few days late, but I have to write ahead a bit so now is my first chance to report: Cubs win! Cubs win! Cubs win!
There, I feel better now.
Next, I don’t much like this satellite question because it reminds me of those stories about meteor showers or some other spectacular planetary display that is going to happen at 2 a.m. and you promise you’re going to get out of bed to watch it but you never do.
It turns out there is a lot of stuff out there — or up there — you can see with the unaided eye. (Every time I use the phrase “out there” I get a polite but stern note from a guy who tells me there is no such place as out there.)
There are hundreds of space objects you can see with your plain old eye and maybe thousands you can see with a telescope or binoculars. A few may even be visible in daylight.
You just have to know when and where to look.
For starters there is something called the Iridium constellation. These are communication satellites that orbit the earth. They have rectangular antennae that are very good at reflecting light back to you.
During a flare of these things they can be the brightest stuff in the night sky and can sometimes be visible during the day.
Try this: Go to spaceweather.com and enter your zip code and get the daily reports on the date and time when you can see something up there.