UCS Satellite Database, Iridium Flares and Satellite Spotting
The Union of Concerned Scientists is a little.. uh.. concerned about all those satellites in orbit. Sure some of them are communications birds, but you never know how many of them are nuclear missile launch platforms or spy sats or orbiting mind control lasers. So they did something about it; they compiled a handy list of known satellites and put it in an Excel spreadsheet. Sure, CSV would probably have been nicer, but my copy of OpenOffice opens the file just fine. They don't include details like orbital elements, which would totally rock, but they do list URLs where you can get more information about each bird. There's also a users' guide with a brief introduction to orbits which is handy if, like me, it's been a couple of years since you touched an orbital mechanics text.The list is available from the Union of Concerned Scientists UCS Satellite Database page.
People looking for a slightly more technical and slightly more detailed introduction to orbital mechanics can find a good reference at the Rocket & Space Technology Orbital Mechanics page.
And while we're on the subject of artificial satellites... one of the coolest things in the world (I think) is going outside to look at an Iridium Flare. If you're looking up on a clear night at the right time from the right place, you can see the sun reflect off the solar panels of the Iridium communications satellites. The Visual Satellite Observers page has a nice section on Iridium Flares as well as links to programs and web pages you can use to calculate when the next flare will occur in your area.
Another site of note is Chris Peat's Heaven's Above. There's lots of good tools for the amateur satellite spotter including a web-based iridium flare prediction tool and a satellite database with orbital elements. If you've found a satellite on the UCS list you're interested in, you can use the "Norad Number" found in column U as the query on the Heaven's Above Select Satellite form (paste the "Norad Number" in the top text field on the select satellite form and hit the submit button.) You'll be rewarded with a metric boatload of information, including orbital elements.
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