How to track satellites?

Ever wonder when the International Space Station or Hubble Space Telescope will pass by in their multiple daily orbits?

Space.com is introducing a new satellite tracker powered by N2YO.com to answer that question for many of the diverse cast of space stations, observational satellites and military orbiters that trace paths through the sky above.

Check out the tracker here.

Satellites are predictable, but the complex algorithms needed to plot their locations are too slow to work in real time in a Web browser, said Ciprian Sufitchi, the tracker's creator. Space.com's new app communicates with a server that reports back the real-time location and speed of several satellites — and makes that information personal by plotting exactly where a given satellite is and reporting when it will pass overhead for the user.

Some satellites are easier to see than others; Hubble, for instance, is very faint, while the International Space Station is much brighter and can be seen even from cities or other areas with a lot of light pollution, assuming there's no fog or clouds. Sufitchi advises against using a telescope — the field of view is too narrow, and it's too hard to track the satellites' quick movement across the sky — but binoculars may provide a wide enough view to catch the satellites' passing. However, the naked eye is often the best option, he said.

The first satellite Sufitchi ever saw was the International Space Station, which he recommends as a first target.