[BluH2o]

Probably one of the few freeper types to actually see Sputnik.
A young teenager, I was hunting with a friend of mine near my home in eastern Canada. It was a clear fall day with the sun beginning to descend in the late afternoon. On the eastern horizon, tracking from the south east to the north west we observed a small silver object, like a small silver ball bearing, caused by the suns reflection. We were aware that Sputnik had been launched, but initially thought it was probably an aircraft, we lived on the great circle route to and from Europe for commercial aviation. But after watching it for a few moments came to the conclusion that it wasn't an aircraft. It had to be Sputnik, which it was ... but who would believe two kids? Told my Mom, who of course was skeptical, until later that evening she heard on the evening news (radio) that a captain of a ship on the St. Lawrence River (150 miles or so north of where we were) reported seeing Sputnik at about the same time as we observed it.
Years later, at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in DC I saw a Sputnik exhibit that showed its orbit ... which tracked up the eastern US and over eastern Canada. Further confirming what I saw, that beautiful fall afternoon in 1957, in fact was Sputnik.

[DuncanWaring]

Keep in mind that Sputnik orbited the earth roughly 15 times per day ... it tracked over eastern Canada on that particular orbit.

On its next orbit, it would have tracked about 25 degrees of longitude west, the next orbit another 25 degrees west, and eventually the next day, would have followed roughly the same track you saw that day.