Aaron Davidson [ajd@ualberta.ca] wrote:
>Just curious if anyone knows what would cause a satelite to
>blink/change in brightness.
Some of this may be due to normal atmospheric effects (stars often change in brightness for the same reason). But a more likely explanation is that many satellites -- particularly the fast-moving low-orbit ones you normally see -- spin for stability, and their reflectivity will vary depending on which part of the satellite you're seeing. Hence their brightness will vary over anything from a fraction of a second to several seconds depending on spin rate.
Mark