Why are we not able to see the many satellites flying in front of the moon ever in any of the pics of the moon ever or from the ISS ever?

Question

Why are we not able to see the many satellites flying in front of the moon ever in any of the pics of the moon ever or from the ISS ever?

Answer 1

We can see one pass in front of the dark of the moon occasionally. At other times the Moon is too bright.

Answer 2

If you could go satellite-watching, in the early night, or right before dawn, you would see satellites are VERY small, and fast moving, you are talking about an instant's window of time, and it's very likely to get washed out by the moon itself.

Answer 3

if you think about it. the average satalite is at most the size of a small house. and your looking out hundreds of miles. have you ever stood on a mountain and looked down to see how far you can see. after a few miles the houses are so small. its almost impossible to see. now extend that 244,000 miles or more. the chances of you actually seeing those without aid is very unlikely.

Answer 4

We are able to see that:



https://www.google.com/search?q=photos+of+ISS+in+front+of+the+moon&biw=1366&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjX1eeK6MTNAhXo4IMKHfZ3DYkQ_AUIBigB&dpr=1

Answer 5

How come when you're in New Jersey you can never see people on the windows of buildings in New York?

Answer 6

Because satellites are too small to see from the ground.

Answer 7

Reading your question was like reading an old telegraph. Except instead of writing STOP at the end of every sentence, you wrote EVER

Answer 8

For the same reason you can't see a fly on the wall of the house across the street.

Answer 9

Here you go. There are many other examples as well if you google search it.

Answer 10

The ISS does cross in front of the Moon and the Sun and there are pictures to prove it. The ISS crosses the face of the Sun in less than a second so it's hard to get a picture, but pictures do exist:



http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/12/30/when-natural-and-artificial-moons-align/#.V23oO7grK70



Here's another time-lapse from 2006, with still incomplete ISS:



http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap061014.html



Here is a picture of the ISS crossing in front of the Sun, with space shuttle Atlantis approaching to dock with the ISS.



http://www.space.com/8458-wow-shuttle-space-station-photographed-crossing-sun.html



and another, a couple of days later with the shuttle docked



http://astrobob.areavoices.com/2010/05/28/a-billion-artists-at-work/



Here is a video of two satellites passing in front of the Moon



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT1wSm_iK6o#t=23.805079

Answer 11

Like a few others have found, the wording of your question makes it hard to understand clearly what you are asking.



If you want details of when satellites (including the ISS) will be close to or seen passing in front of the Sun or Moon I can recommend the website calsky.com. Each pass last less than a second so you will need to be ready!

Answer 12

Thgey are too small to been seen when you have to scrunch down a picture to get the WHOLE moon in teh picture

Answer 13

The satellites are certainly not small, so the reason why you can't see them with the naked eye passing across the moon is because of sheer distance. If you had a powerful enough telescope you could potentially identify a satellite, but there's really nothing special about our inability to see satellites in the sky.