You only see them if they’re high up enough to be in sunlight. (This is true no matter what: satellites don’t emit their own significant light, they’re reflecting the sun’s.)

The later it gets, the higher the satellite would have to be to still be in the sun. The vast, vast majority of them are low enough that this is not significantly long after sunset. The rest are so high up that you won’t really see them anyway (and don’t move significantly fast across the sky, because orbit is slower the higher you go.)

You essentially don’t see satellites at all in the middle of the night.

That sounds fun, count me in!

>There's been visible satellites in the sky literally my entire life.

I didn't know 3 years olds were on HN :)

Seriously though, there is a difference between a satellite or an asteroid showing up every 15 minutes and a sky with a few satellites at all times.

I want to take you outside and show you. I'm not bitching about nothing. We're not just making this up. There weren't Iridium flares every 20 seconds. You can't even go somewhere remote like New Zealand to avoid getting overflown by them. You see them basically everywhere on Earth now. Maybe you can wait until they're fully in Earth's shadow, but that's not even a guarantee.

They're bright, they move quickly, and there are loads of them. It's like having one of the last peaceful things you can do plastered with the equivalent of full-motion banner ads for Earth bullshit.