Hey all
I was just out showing a friend a few things through my scope, and we spotted a very small but very bright flash to the North near Altair (specifically, about half a degree west of Tarazed) , It repeated a few times, and didn't appear to be moving a lot, so i tried pointing the scope at it.
Through a 42mm EP, i spotted an extremely small elongated object which would brighten slowly, flash brightly suddenly and fade again and become barely visible before repeating... from flash to flash was about 2 seconds.
Although it didn't appear to be moving naked eye, through the scope it showed it was moving slowly roughly WNW.... I followed it for about a minute or two, then decided to swap to a 24mm EP for a closer look and lost track of it, by that time the flashes had faded and i couldnt find it again.
Stellarium didnt show any satellites in the area at the time, so I tried looking on Heavens Above, but couldnt find anything there to explain what it was... It was obviously a satellite of some sort, but it would be great if i could put a name to it...
I thought it may have been too late in the night to be an Irridium Flare (i thought they were only seen shortly after sunset
), and ive seen the ISS several times and i dont think thats what it was.. There was a visible ISS pass about an hour earlier, but that would have visible to the south of me and not in the area of what i spotted..
Whatever it was it was pretty amazing to see through the scope
My observing site is in Schofields, NSW and i logged the time of the sighting at approx 2150...
Any help much appreciated
Davin