What did I see next to Mars? Satellite?

[DJ N]

Hello everyone

This morning, at around 6am, I was viewing Mars at pretty high power. Whilst observing, I noticed perhaps a satellite drift through the field of view. What confused me was how slowly it was moving. It took around 20 seconds to move through the field. In terms of field of view, I was using my Pentax 3.5mm XW (70 degree AFOV) with the Esprit 150ED, so therefore this equates to around a 0.23 degree or 14 minute fov!

Any ideas what could move this slowly at such a small fov?

Cheers

Daniel

[Atmos]

Perhaps a brighter asteroid?

[DJ N]

I was thinking that..... I have been browsing Heavens Above to see if anything comes up.

[JA]

Hi DJ,

Having some fun in Stellarium at between 0500 and 0700 Adelaide time this morning it appears that the Mentor 1 Satellite passed very close to Mars (within 1 minute of angle) at approximately 0603 Adelaide Time this morning. It was travelling at a speed where it would have taken about 55 seconds to traverse your 14 minute field of view. Its path would have appeared as almost horizontal.

Best
JA

[DJ N]

Hi JA

Great find! That sounds as if it could be the culprit. In the eyepiece, the object was travelling from about 2 o'clock to 8 o'clock, so it seems highly likely.

Thanks for that

Cheers

D

[Hemi]

It would have been lovely to observe, I bet.

Hemi