Quote:
Originally Posted by knightrider
That's interesting that you saw it also Joel.
It was the same night also? I'm located far north QLD.
To anyone that knows:
Do satellite flares cover a large area? or are they specifically aimed at any given location to see them?
After some reading it's seems very unlikely to be a variable star of any sort, as none of the different types seem to display any of the qualities that I observed. So, as astroron pointed out, probably a satellite...
|
Iridium Satellite's are spread out across the sky, last week I saw two within one minute of each other and only a deg of seperation,eg one was 354° at 17:56 and the next one was 353° at 17:57, now unless you had noted down the time of both of them, you could be forgiven for thinking they where the same satellite.
Joel could have seen a satellite flair around the same time, but it would be unlikely to have been the same one seen around 2000kms away from your position.
Another thing I thought after my last post, was,by the time you got your binoculars the satellite had gone into the Earths shadow and so you would have not seen it move anyway.
The main thing that has come out of this thread for me, is that it pays to always have your bino's, a watch, and pen and paper to record accurately your observations.
Cheers
