Weird sight in sky over Vic tonight

[Stuart78]

Did anyone else see the quite bright blinking object tonight at around 9pm over eastern Victoria look to be a satellite spinning rapidly, i have never seen a satellite move at this kinda speed, it rose on northwestern horizon and disappeard in the southeast within 45 sec's or less very weird:screwy:






Stu>>

[pgc hunter]

hmm interesting observation. It could've been a light aircraft with its strobe lights. Did it make a sound?

[toetoe]

Might have been the ISS ??

[pgc hunter]

^^ it wouldn't be blinking as the OP described though.

[toetoe]

Bugger, i didn't read it properly, I'm tired,,,:sadeyes:

[badchap]

The seeing would not be too good at the moment looking from Traralgon over towards the north west and south east- I imagine from there you would be looking through a lot of smoke from the fires.

Even what you'd expect to be the most recognisable objects can look strange through bushfire smoke..
I recall a few years back when we had a pall of smoke hanging over us for days, one evening the crescent moon and - ? IIRC Jupiter nearby ? - there might have also been a wispy bit of cloud around, too - but incredibly bad seeing and these large objects didn't look like themselves at all. ( I knew what they were, but couldn't blame people for not even being able to recognise the moon.)

[StevenA]

I saw something but we have have some differnces in observation. I saw it at the zenith and watched it travel out of site in the SE as you did. It was slightly yellowish and a guess of it's size later would be approx 10". I did not see it blink but watched it travel relatively slower. From my location in Springvale the time from first Ob's to disappearing not far from horizon which took a little less than 2 minutes. It was only luck that I saw it because I went outside with Bino's to check out the sky transparency due to smoke pollution, before lugging heavy scope and EQ6 outside. Logged it as soon as I went back inside. Steven PS approx Magnitude -1 to -2 (Very bright)

[Stuart78]

It was suprisingly clear here last night, could see most of the stars including LMC we had a few showers during the day and smoke has settled quite abit, i dunno what it was it wasn't a plane, had all the signs of being a satellite no sound and the direction it travelled, just seem'd to be spinning and reflecting sunlight in a flashing on off, (not like aircraft lights) and was moving at a really fast speed, oh well it was cool to watch just wonder'd if anyone else may have seen it..:shrug:






Stu>>

[pgc hunter]

It was a PGCHunter class interstellar destroyer.


But seriously, I can't really think of anything that matches your description. Could it have been a largish meteor burning up and disintergrating, creating a flickering effect?

[Spanrz]

Did it blink like morse code "... ... ... ..." ? Or like ".................."

I have been studying some of the satellites. I'll get my starry night going around 9pm last night and see what was up.

Ok, around 9PM AEDT last night. er about 20:37 to be exact a satellite arose from the NW and set in the SE around 20:46. Called the PSSC.

I think you might be looking at the PSSC : http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/PSSC.html
Most probably would match your discription, due to the solar cells flashing in sun as it turned.

[thorsmum]

Hi, I saw the same thing last night by chance was outside with the dogs turned around to the SE and spotted it, not sure myself what it was BUT have since heard that 2 satellites collided in space last night but not sure what time. MAYBE this was it?

[Stuart78]

Hi lol it was like morse code, my wife also seen it so i am not going nuts:screwy:
i read before there was a collision between two satellites could it be a big piece of something off that incident possibly?? :shrug:

[Stuart78]

Hooray someone else seen it:D, lol i was typing my last reply as you were posting yours, yeah i thought maybe same thing after i read about the satellites, could of been, i suspect there will be quite alot of shrapnel flying allover the place after that collision?

[Spanrz]

The PSSC got to a bright magnitude (about 1.0)
It was the only thing that was going in a NW to SW direction at that time.

It will rise up from West (directly under Venus) and set South East at 21:18 to 21:28 AEDT tomorrow the 14th, highest point will be 21 degrees Alt basically due SOUTH WEST at 21:23.
That's from SE Suburbia in Melb.
If you get the chance to check it out, take a gander. Just to confirm that it's the PSSC.