Basic Question, Basic Answer?

ankaragucu

Hi, you know the way on any given night you can see what looks like a star moving across the sky?Well what exactly is this?And why is it happening?
Its amazing how frequently this seems to happen.I've seen several the past couple of weeks.Are they meteors?Or actual stars, as in suns?They LOOK like stars and can take over a minute to cross the sky if you see them early enough before they become too faint and contunue their journey to , well who knows?!
Reason I'm asking this now is that the other night I spotted one that looked different to any I've seen before.Up to now any I've seen have been that 'normal' star colour whiteish blue.But this one was a very definite pale orange/ yellowish though it moved in the same way as the others.
Can someone enlighten me?

RebelButtMunch

ankaragucu wrote: »

Hi, you know the way on any given night you can see what looks like a star moving across the sky?Well what exactly is this?And why is it happening?
Its amazing how frequently this seems to happen.I've seen several the past couple of weeks.Are they meteors?Or actual stars, as in suns?They LOOK like stars and can take over a minute to cross the sky if you see them early enough before they become too faint and contunue their journey to , well who knows?!
Reason I'm asking this now is that the other night I spotted one that looked different to any I've seen before.Up to now any I've seen have been that 'normal' star colour whiteish blue.But this one was a very definite pale orange/ yellowish though it moved in the same way as the others.
Can someone enlighten me?

Satellites

ankaragucu

Really?Why do you think this latest one had a distinct yellow tinge to it?

Zubeneschamali

If you know which night, what time and which direction it was going, you can probably find out exactly which satellit it was using heavens-above.com

RebelButtMunch

ankaragucu wrote: »

Really?Why do you think this latest one had a distinct yellow tinge to it?

dispersion of light through the atmosphere or reflection off a yellowish surface. ISS detector app for android is free and handy to track the space station

ps200306

ankaragucu wrote: »

Really?Why do you think this latest one had a distinct yellow tinge to it?

The sun sets on satellites, just as it does at ground level. You'll normally find that the satellite isn't visible all the way down to the horizon -- that's because it passes into the earth's shadow and becomes invisible. Before it does that, the sun is getting lower and lower to the horizon from the satellite's point of view, just as it does before sunset here on the ground. As a result, the sun's light is getting yellower/redder due to scattering by atmospheric dust, and that's what you see reflected.

It's also possible that the reddening is due to scattering of the reflected light on its way down to you, if the satellite itself is low to your horizon or -- as has been the case for the last few days -- there is an unusually large concentration of Saharan dust in the air.

Finally, at our northern location you will see longer satellite tracks on the sky in summer than in winter, because the sun is closer below the horizon. This also means that the satellite spends more time lit by sunset (just as you do -- in summer the sun slants down to the horizon and the sunset/twilight is longer than at the equinoxes when the sun goes straight down in the west).