<p>Generally, these will be low orbit satellites. They are visible when still lit by the sun (visible over the horizon from behind the edge of Earth at their altitude) and they disappear when the enter Earth shadow ("night") and are no longer highlit by the sun. Obviously, that happens only during evening and dawn - in the middle of the night they are in full shadow.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-23T14:22:31.123Z
2017-02-23T14:22:31.123Z
SF.
<p>me and my friends likes to stargaze at night and every time we see this star like light that glides in one direction. they sometimes even cross in the middle then disappear sometime. i observed that it cant be seen if its too dark. we wondered what it could possibly be, we even make jokes that it was an alien craft that monitors our actions. we even nicknamed it "the fifth wave"(after the movie <em>The Fifth Wave</em>). its just something to wonder upon, really, but if you have something to share i'd be willing to read it and share it with my friends.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-23T13:56:40.297Z
Have you  even **tried**  to do a little thinking about what's up in the sky?  Perhaps you could Google "Boeing 727"  and "Sputnik"
Carl Witthoft
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-02-23T17:55:07.813Z
Please see the "What about that thing in the sky?" section in [this Help Center post](http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic). There is not sufficient detail here to give you a more specific answer than SF (by the way, satellites are already addressed [here](http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/10655/6)). Closing as unclear until more detail is given.
called2voyage
<star><light><night-sky>
Star like lights at night
PiaTheFirst
# Star like lights at night

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-02-23)

me and my friends likes to stargaze at night and every time we see this star like light that glides in one direction. they sometimes even cross in the middle then disappear sometime. i observed that it cant be seen if its too dark. we wondered what it could possibly be, we even make jokes that it was an alien craft that monitors our actions. we even nicknamed it "the fifth wave"(after the movie *The Fifth Wave*). its just something to wonder upon, really, but if you have something to share i'd be willing to read it and share it with my friends.

**Tags:** star, light, night-sky
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Have you  even **tried**  to do a little thinking about what's up in the sky?  Perhaps you could Google "Boeing 727"  and "Sputnik"  
> **username_2**: Please see the "What about that thing in the sky?" section in [this Help Center post](http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic). There is not sufficient detail here to give you a more specific answer than SF (by the way, satellites are already addressed [here](http://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/10655/6)). Closing as unclear until more detail is given.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2017-02-23. Score: 3

Generally, these will be low orbit satellites. They are visible when still lit by the sun (visible over the horizon from behind the edge of Earth at their altitude) and they disappear when the enter Earth shadow ("night") and are no longer highlit by the sun. Obviously, that happens only during evening and dawn - in the middle of the night they are in full shadow.


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