How can we differentiate between a satellite and planets when viewing from Earth without using telescope?

Question

Unlike stars, planet reflects light. Therefore, they don't blink in the sky. To determine whether an object in the sky is a star, they blink in the sky. Do huge satellites blink in the sky? So how can we determine which is which in the sky? Furthermore, I have also seen two huge objects in the sky these days, may I know what these objects are? If both are planets, which is which and how can I differentiate them?

Answer 1

Satellites move across the sky at very noticeable speeds, taking only tens of seconds or a minute or two to cross the night sky. These satellites, unlike geosynchronous satellites, are only a few hundred miles above the Earth.

Planets take months to traverse the night-time ecliptic plane. They are tens of millions to hundreds of millions of miles away.

The two bright planets presently visible are Venus in the west after dusk, and Jupiter in the east, rising to maximum ascension at around midnight to 1 AM. These positions and times of viewing will change gradually as the Earth makes its journey around the Sun, and the planets do likewise.

Answer 2

Satellite Viewing From Earth

Answer 3

Most of the low orbit satellites will move with a noticeable movement across the sky unlike the planets. No, satellites don't blink unless they are spinning and the different faces have different reflectivity but that blinking will have a definite period unlike the flickering of stars.

Answer 4

Any satellite in a low enough orbit to see without a telescope will appear to move very quickly across the sky. It may be confused for a high flying airplane, but there is no way you would confuse it with a planet. Planets seem to stand still in the sky. They do move, but it takes many days to move far enough to notice easily. Except for the Moon, which moves very noticeably in one day.

Answer 5

It was a lot easier in the early days of the space age when all satellites were in low Earth orbit. On many evenings you could go out and lay on the ground and usually before long you could spot one. It looks like a fast moving point of light that goes out as soon as it moves into the night side of the planet. Today with most satellites in geosynchronous orbit they are too far out to see. Instead of two hundred miles up for an low Earth orbit satellite they are many thousands of miles up. Good luck because I haven't been able to spot one for years.

Answer 6

Hi. Telescopes are not much use for viewing satellites as they move too fast. Binoculars work much better and you can see many orbiting satellites on any given night, mostly moving north to south or south to north. Satellites do sometimes 'twinkle' if they are rotating and have flat solar panels for power.

Answer 7

planets are thousands of thousand mile away from earth and the reflected light come from the planets are less luminous than satellite one.

Answer 8

I was going to answer this but Nrao
already gave a correct answer.

Nice to see so many amazing questions and answers about our universe !

Answer 9

The moon and the sun?