For more information on the Stardust mission and images from the recent encounter, go to the Stardust site. Also check out the Stardust education page for a variety of interesting resources and things to do. These times are best because this is when the crafts are reflecting sunlight toward Earth but us Earthlings are in our planet's shadow making it easier to spot the bright dots going by. Knowing which part of the sky to expect to first see a particular craft helps. Equatorial orbits - the satellite will nearly always appear to travel from the western half of the sky to the eastern half.
Most satellites are in such orbits.
The direction of their travel is the same as Earth's rotation, allowing them to use less energy to get started in orbit. Polar orbits - a high inclination orbit will take a satellite over the polar regions so that it covers the whole of the Earth's surface, as the Earth rotates below it. Typical examples here include a large number of weather satellites. Satellites with this type of orbit can NOT be easily seen, since they appear not to move. To learn more about visually observing these craft go to the Visual Satellite Observers Home Page or NASA's Satellite Tracking page .