Spotting NOAA Satellites from Earth

From NOAA Satellite and Information Service:

Ever wonder if you can see NOAA satellites from Earth?

You can! But it can be very difficult. At their brightest, NOAA satellites have an apparent magnitude of +5.5, which is pretty faint.

The apparent magnitude of an object describes how bright it appears in the sky from Earth. The brighter an object appears to us, the lower its magnitude value. The sun, for example, has an apparent magnitude of -26.7, while the faintest stars seen in an urban neighborhood with the naked eye tend to have an apparent magnitude of +3 to +4. In fact, the average naked eye can only see objects up to around +6.5 apparent magnitude.

Read more about spotting NOAA satellites in the night sky here! http://go.usa.gov/c99Kw