Morepower
09-07-2009, 01:04 PM
Hi all,
On Friday evening on the 3-7-09 a mate and I were out waiting for the ISS(space station) to make a pass at 18:25 in Kings Park, Sydney West. My friend pointed straight up at about 90˚ to an object that was barely visible to the naked eye that, at a guess, would have been travelling at a similar altitude and speed as the space station. To be honest I don’t know how he spotted it, it was so dim. It was only barely visible due to it's very low reflectivity, not because it was too small. It seemed just a tad smaller in size than the ISS and was brown to very dark orange (possibly from being in the sunlight ?) in colour. I'm wondering if it was either the Shuttle or an asteroid ? The actual ISS came into view just 10-15 seconds later travelling from WSW going NNE. The object in question was travelling on a similar trajectory only maybe 8-10˚ more North as if they would meet up, or cross paths at some point out of veiw. I look up at the skies all the time and know most of the Planets, etc., but I havn’t ever seen anything like this. If it had been even a little reflective it would have been easily visible. Of course I didn’t take my binoculars down with me this time around :doh:. Any thoughts on what it might have been will be much appreciated. My friend wants to believe it was Aliens, lol.
Many thanks
Craig
On Friday evening on the 3-7-09 a mate and I were out waiting for the ISS(space station) to make a pass at 18:25 in Kings Park, Sydney West. My friend pointed straight up at about 90˚ to an object that was barely visible to the naked eye that, at a guess, would have been travelling at a similar altitude and speed as the space station. To be honest I don’t know how he spotted it, it was so dim. It was only barely visible due to it's very low reflectivity, not because it was too small. It seemed just a tad smaller in size than the ISS and was brown to very dark orange (possibly from being in the sunlight ?) in colour. I'm wondering if it was either the Shuttle or an asteroid ? The actual ISS came into view just 10-15 seconds later travelling from WSW going NNE. The object in question was travelling on a similar trajectory only maybe 8-10˚ more North as if they would meet up, or cross paths at some point out of veiw. I look up at the skies all the time and know most of the Planets, etc., but I havn’t ever seen anything like this. If it had been even a little reflective it would have been easily visible. Of course I didn’t take my binoculars down with me this time around :doh:. Any thoughts on what it might have been will be much appreciated. My friend wants to believe it was Aliens, lol.
Many thanks
Craig