?? Blinking Bright Light

[Tamtarn]

The last two nights have been fantastic here for observing.

Each night I have spent a lot of time searching in Cetus Northern part for a particular galaxy.

Both nights observing naked eye I have seen a bright blinking light. I assume it's some form of satellite. It sometimes has a 1-2 minute gap between blinks and other times 2-5 minutes. It seems to stay in a small area and doesn't move across the sky. It is a very bright blueish white.

I continued observing with the scope in other constellations then I would glance back to Cetus and there it was again The time frame was around 8-9pm I think ........ I loose all track of time while observing

I haven't seen anything like this before.....Very unusual

Any suggestions ??

Barb

[Doug]

Since it appears not to move around much, did you attempt to look at it thru your scope?
Doug

[Tamtarn]

Yes I did Doug I centred the Telrad on the position where it blinked and looked in the EP for an extended time but the next time it blinked it was in a different spot..................So frustrating

[mattweather]

That was my supernova! dehhh

[Doug]

Well if it wered a satelite or a bit of space junk, it would be in the Earth's shadow at that time of night me thinks.
It could be an uncharted asteroid far enough out to miss the Earth's shadow, and also to slow down its drift across the sky. The blinking would be the result of tumbling along reflecting sunlight as it goes?????????????????????
other than that
Doug

[jase (Jason)]

Hi Barb,
If you were looking in a northerly direction and the object appeared to motionless, I would say you saw a geostationary satellite. Geostationary satellites generally orbit the earth at the same speed of earth’s rotation, hence appear stationary.
Generally, you will see more satellites during the civil and nautical twilight (when the Sun is 6 - 12 degrees below the horizon respectively and the sky isn't completely dark i.e. reached astronomical twilight) as the sun will reflect off solar energy panels as the satellite rotates. This could have caused the blinking you experienced. Satellite rotation is common to maintain the correct orbit.

You may find what you saw on the satellite tracking site http://www.heavens-above.com/

[astroron (Ron)]

Hi Barb, as mentioned in posts a good pair of Bino's are the first step in observing these objects, always have them handy

[Doug]

Well to clear up some confusion, did you look thru the meade goto thingy or the non driven Dob? If the non driven Dob, a geo stat sat would not move, would it?

Doug.

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

Originally Posted by jase

Hi Barb,
If you were looking in a northerly direction and the object appeared to motionless, I would say you saw a geostationary satellite. Geostationary satellites generally orbit the earth at the same speed of earth’s rotation, hence appear stationary.

I agree. Cetus lies on the celestial equator so it would make perfect sense to me.
People looking at Orion's belt often see geostationary sats too, since the equator runs right through it! So check the position of this blink and if it is near the celestial equator that's probably it.

[Tamtarn]

Thanks for the input guys

Something I didn't mention. There was always just one blink every time I saw it at the different intervals. That's why it was so hard to quess where it would be the next time it blinked in a slightly different position.

Doug I was looking through the dob

Jase I contacted Chris Peat from HA but no reply yet

Blue Skies I have checked the position of the Celestial Equator and where I saw the blink was 10 degrees from it. If that's any help to you.