Satellite and ISS Orbit History

I need some help.
It seems I have a difficult time finding things on the net. I had an experience last night and then a sighting.

What I need to know is:

Does anyone know how to find out where the ISS or any satellites were at a specific time?

I seen something, looked just like a star moving north over 1101 s winchester blvd san jose ca at approximately 5:00 or 5:20 a.m. march 8th.

I was at a sleep study clinic, I have a hard time sleeping because of this "dream" I have a couple times a month, the same thing happens to me, but the dream changes with where I am.
So, I thought to myself, please let me have this dream while I am being studied and I did. Then some other things happend and I went out side for a smoke and saw that.

Could just be pure schizophrenia

So I would like to know if there were any satellites or the ISS in that area at that time.

Thanks to anyone that could help.

reply to post by The Universal Mind


Hi universal mind. Here is a link to Heavens Above that will help you track things such as the iss, satellites, iridium flares, etc.. I have the page set for San Jose coordinates. I haven't found what you may have seen yet, but it could have been any number of satellites. I see these alot. Below is another tracking site that I like to use when tracking the iss and shuttle.

Nasa Spaceflight

I will keep doing some checking to see if we can figure out what you saw.

reply to post by hsur2112


Thank you so much.

I will check out the links.

I seen it again this morning between 5:25 and 5:30 a.m. It passed right through the big dipper north bound. Then at about 5:40 a.m. I saw two smaller lights that looked to be a lot higher than the first. The smaller lights crossed paths, one going in a sort of north-west direction, the other going south.

These three object I spot on ocassion are probably just the ISS and different satellites, but I am not sure.

If anyone here knows of a site where I can type in a certain day and time, then get the history of where the ISS and the satellite were in relation to that, let me know.

reply to post by The Universal Mind


You can go to the Heavens Above (the above link is set for San Jose) and click on whatever you are tracking. In the upper right hand click on 'PREV' and this will give you previous sighting opps. Keep clicking on it to take you farther back.

You might want to check out this thread:

UFO or Satellite? Need your help!

It sounds like someone in Dallas saw the same thing you did. Hope this helps.

Yeah they sound like satellites to me.
If it looks like a star, but moving - it's probably a satellite.
The best time to look for them is right before dawn or after sunset, the sun is reflecting off them, but hasn't come over horizon to light up the sky (and make them invisible) yet.

I have noticed that since I moved to San Diego I am seeing a lot more of them, the skies here are quite a bit clearer than NJ.

For identifying what I am seeing I like n2yo.com satellite tracking, the interface is very handy.

I checked out heavens above.

The ISS, STS-123, ATV, Genesis 1, and HST orbit history shows me that they were not visible in my area on the dates that I had seen the objects. Well, the site didn't say if they were visible or not, they just didnt show any dates from the 6th to the 16th of march. I observed these objects on the mornings of march 8th and 11th.

I'm thinking they may be satellites from other countries or maybe ours that the government doesn't tell us about.

The bigger, brighter one, the one I had seen on the 11th at the same time I had seen the one on the 8th, was sort of an L shape. It looked as if it was distorting, maybe because of the heat mirage from the sun. I had my binoculars with me this time.

The Genesis 2 shows it was visible in my area, but not at the times I had witnessed the other objects.

The Envisat was visible in my area on one of the days, but again, not the right time.

I don't think I can track them with my scope. I think I may need a camera with a huge lens adaption on a tripod. Thats going to be expensive.

Originally posted by The Universal Mind
I'm thinking they may be satellites from other countries or maybe ours that the government doesn't tell us about.

There are many more satellites to rule out first before you start thinking about top secret ones. Did you check to see if they were the Iridium satellites? There are over 70 of them orbiting the Earth and they tend to cause bright flares up to a magnitude of -8 (the Moon is -12 just for comparison). So check to see if those might be it.

Look for a program named Orbitron. It tracks thousands of objects at any given moment. It's a little difficult to understand but it's cool once you figure it out.

reply to post by jra


They weren't iridium satellites. The smaller objects could have been ameteur radio telescopes, but I still don't see any records of what the larger object was.