A line of geosats (geostationary communication satellites) as they flare in brightness near the equinoxes.
A line of geosats (geostationary communication satellites) as they flare in brightness near the equinoxes. They are reflecting sunlight back to Earth, flaring from their normal dim telescopic brightness to briefly become bright enough to see with the unaided eye. They are brightest around the point directly opposite the Sun, marked by the dim glow of the Gegenschein, another reflection of sunlight but off dust particles in the outer solar system beyond Earth's orbit. In this case, a number of the satellites are flaring to the brightness of Regulus, at first magnitude. While it looks like the satellites are moving, they are actually stationary with respect to the Earth (thus their name) and it is the sky that is moving.
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Photo credit: © Alan Dyer/Stocktrek Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
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