Once in a great while, a large meteor the size of a golf ball or bigger will be big enough to survive the trip through the atmosphere and crashes to the ground as a meteorite. When the Earth passes through the orbital path of a comet, the bits and pieces of ice and dust left behind by the comet will fall to Earth as meteors. These showers are named after the constellation that the meteors seem to radiate from. Satellites Shuttle missions and satellites are becoming an increasingly popular object to hunt in the night sky. In most cases, naked eye viewing is best, due to the speed the satellites travel across the sky.
Satellites appear as a starlike dot moving across the sky in a straight line.
Occasionally, the station will fly between the observer and the moon. By knowing in advance when such a transit will take place, you can point your telescope at the moon and wait. When the space station passes across the field of view, you'll be able to see it's silhouette cross in front of the moon, revealing it's shape. Some viewers have reported being able to see the solar panels on Mir. Several internet sites are dedicated to tracking these man-made objects, and exact times for viewing them from a given location are readily available.