So it seems like two conditions need to met for these to become visible from a plane or at least show up in NVGs from the surface.
1 – The sun needs to be almost exactly in line with the satellite. (This one I suppose is easy enough to comprehend.)
2 – The sun needs to be roughly 40 degrees below the horizon. (I’m a little stumped on this one but every single sighting I looked at this was the case. Something to do with the geometry of sun, reflective satellite surface and observer?)
Now re: why are they always in the north ... Read even more
