View Full Version here: : Dual formation satellites?
HolyWars
27-10-2009, 09:19 PM
Hey all, just wondering if you have seen 2 satellites that move in formation. My bro spotted it and we are in Seymour, Victoria and they came from a South Easterly direction heading North/North East at about a mag of 0-0.5 @ about 9pm. They where travelling awefully fast (quicker then the ISS I observed just 29 minutes earlier and tracked the movement through the 8" Dob for about a minute but it showed nothing more then a brighter dot on the one I was watching. They had about 10 degrees seperation from eachother and moved at the same pace....
Thanks
leinad
27-10-2009, 09:36 PM
We saw these also travelling from South to North near Zenith two weekends ago at the ASWA Dryandra Deep sky night.
Not too sure as yet what satellites they were.
JethroB76
27-10-2009, 09:53 PM
Perhaps they were NOSS sats?
http://www.satobs.org/noss.html
I have seen satellites in triangular or T-shaped formations containing 3 or 4 satellites before, there is probably a thread on here about them.
Outbackmanyep
27-10-2009, 10:10 PM
I asked a friend overseas who observes satellites exactly this question when i saw these sats in September, i gave him details and he sent it to some people he knows and worked out that they were indeed NOSS satellites!
So there's your answer!
HolyWars
28-10-2009, 07:09 PM
Hey dudes, thanks for the responses and I also agree that these seem like that they are the NOSS sats. It was pretty wiered seeing satellites moving in formation like that!:P
Outbackmanyep
29-10-2009, 08:46 PM
Yeah, i had never seen anything like it before either, thats why i had to ask my friend overseas!
It's actually a pastitme of some astronomers, to watch for satellites, as a lot of secret sats don't have their orbits published and amateurs keep an eye on them to update the orbital elements!
Astonishing stuff!
vBulletin® v3.8.7, Copyright ©2000-2025, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.