How big are satellites?
 

In case you were wondering, here's one you can gage by the people. ;)

that's funny. when i first looked, i hadn;t scrolled down far enough to see the people at the bottom, and i thought those poles on the side were arrows indicating where there were people. iwas like, 'damn, i can;t even see them. the fucking thing must be huge!'

then i scrolled down a little, and it was like, "holy shit, those people are giants!"

it was pretty cool.

Various sizes. Here's one I made amateur radio contacts through, while it was being readied for integration with its launch vehicle.


http://www.gag.com/~bdale/talks/2000/think/mypix20.jpg

I'm with LJ on this one. I thought that thing on the top left of the satellite was a person, and it was as big as a house. I was trying to visualize the rocket that would carry it up.

As long as we are posting pics. Here's a nice one. [Nelson]Ha Ha![/Nelson]

http://www.fiftiesweb.com/pop/sputnik-1.jpg

This is what it took to get the basketball-sized object into orbit:

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question...r7-sputnik.jpg

The main antennas on Iridium satellites are 188 cm x 86 cm x 4 cm and are famous for creating 'Iridium Flares', great streaks across the sky caused by the passing of an Iridium satellite.

Where can we see these???

Irriduium flares are defined, unique to your location, at:
http://www.heavens-above.com

Heavens Above is an awesome site for satellite observing, as well as just about anything moves about in out solar system. Just browsing around you can find a lot of things to observe.
If you are going to watch some Iridium Flares, I would recommend setting up your telescope way ahead of schedule and making sure you have a big enough view of the sky in that region.

Wasn't it NBN that posted some pictures of 'Iridium Flares' in quality images? Had two satellites crossing if I remember right.:confused:

Someone did. I have it in my wall paper.