Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Early satellite-spotting pioneers. In this 1965 photo, volunteer satellite trackers in Pretoria, South Africa, were part of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s Moonwatch Network, one of more than 100 teams worldwide.
Credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives

Around the planet, a loosely knit but closely woven band of amateurs monitor the whereabouts of satellites – be they secretive spacecraft, robotic space drones, rocket stages, orbital debris leftovers, or lost-in-space planetary probes.

But what’s the motivation behind this group of sky prowling spirits? What kind of tools are they using now or in the future to purge secrets from space – at times revealing what some countries don’t want others to know about?

Space.com reached out to a small set of these hobbyists that contribute to SeeSat-L, a mailing list intended to facilitate rapid, reliable communications among a worldwide cadre of visual satellite observers.

For more information on this cadre of satellite observers, go to my new Space.com story:

How amateur satellite trackers are keeping an ‘eye’ on objects around the Earth

https://www.space.com/amateur-satellite-trackers-on-global-lookout.html