Seeing double?

daine042 (Daine) · #1 11-08-2015, 05:31 AM

Good morning every one, just saw 2 satellites in the orion area travelling south to north that appeared to be in the same orbit. They were about .25 - .5 of a degree apart both faded out at the same time. My initial thought was a plane banking but there were no flashing lights nor any engine noise. Checked the star walk app and these satellites were not shown. Could they be some sort of military satellite?

daine042 (Daine) · #2 11-08-2015, 06:11 AM

Sorry that should say north to south

38degsouth (Dean) · #3 11-08-2015, 12:31 PM

Hi,

It could have been an NOSS (Naval Ocean Surveillance System) satellite formation that you saw.

I happened to see a triple formation on several occasions quite a few years ago from a dark sky site...

As quoted on this website
http://www.satobs.org/noss.html
"One of the interesting sights in the night sky are the Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) satellite formations, each having two or three satellites in close proximity to one another. Normally these satellites are relatively dim to the unaided eye, but on occasion they brighten sufficiently to be easily seen in a dark sky."

Regards, Dean

TV76 · #4 18-08-2015, 02:51 PM

Hi,

Not sure if NOSS but last night in Adelaide I was out in the back yard at about 6pm (i.e. sun setting) and I was looking at the new moon when I turned around facing north-east and saw one very very bright light and a another very close to it (maybe .5 to 1 degree apart). Both were situated just above Altair. At first I thought it was Jupiter and Venus but i thought hang on they should be setting not raising....I stared at the weird sight for a few seconds then the brightest object all of a sudden faded from view to nothing along with the second less bright object. I only viewed the objects for a matter of seconds all up and didn't notice the objects travelling like a satellite but I can only assume they were.....that said, the brightest object was so 'intense' I likened it to Venus and I've never seen a satellite that bright!!!!

Anybody else experienced something like this or am I going mad...