Help needed identifying object

[Darth Wader (Wade)]

Hi all,

Last Saturday morning I got up at 4.30am to catch the morning planets. It was the first time seeing Venus & Mars so I concentrated on each of those for a fair while. When I had the scope pointed at Mars I watched it, adjusting the Dec & RA to keep it in view. At one point, I had just adjusted it, let the image settle (have an EQ1 mount and wobbles a bit after adjusting Dec & RA) and after a few seconds I saw something shoot across the FOV from top left to bottom right, too quick for a plane and pretty slow for a meteor. I was gobsmacked because I thought I'd seen a meteor through the scope (another first). I didn't really think much of it because as you all know, you're bound to see them from time to time. So over the last few days I've been thinking about what I saw and then it occurred to me today - the images I see through my Skywatcher refractor are inverted. That means what I saw was upside down and actually went from the bottom left of the FOV to the top right. I have never seen a meteor moving upward before. Of course I'm not claiming I saw a UFO or anything (I don't believe in them to be honest), I just want to know what it could have been and I completely accept the fact that there is a rational explanation... but I don't know what it is! Anyone else see it, or theorise what it might have been?

Cheers
Wade

[Coen]

A satellite.

There are so many of them up there that just about every observing session I have one cross the (small) FOV. Out of curiosity I looked up what they might have been. Most of the time I found out it was a piece of the Chinese satellite that was destroyed by a Chinese ASAT test. It left an incredible amount of debris in fairly stable (=long lived) orbits.

Irritating and I am sure annoying for astrophotographers.

If you are interested in finding out download a package like Orbitron, input your location and download the latest two-line-element sets. Then try and match the approximate alt-az & time to see what you might have seen.

[Inmykombi (Geoff)]

I agree, sounds like a satellite to me.
I also often see them "run" across my field of view while observing.

Some are too dim to see with the naked eye, but through the eyepiece they can be seen to move very quickly.

Cheers. Geoffro.

[cookie8 (Vincent)]

Most lkely satellite AKA space junks. Far too many of them in orbit becoming a nuisance these days for astrophotography. When shooting comet Lulin these stuff intruded into my frame twice in a row. Annoying!!!

[Darth Wader (Wade)]

Aaah there you go. Thanks for the replies guys.

Cheers
Wade