What satellite did I see tonight?

[RobF (Rob)]

I was just out admiring the full moon evening and saw what looked like a bright satellite travelling from about Az 220 Alt 80 degrees travelling down towards the horizon toward Az 220 degrees SSW. Started about Mag 2, slowly faded to about Mag 4, then brightened to Mag 1-2 below 45 degrees elevation.

Time was 2145hrs Qld time. Much too late for light reflected from the sun surely? The full moon at that time was directly behind me as I watched this object set to the South.

ISS and Hubble nowhere near Aus at the moment.
Would appreciate an explanation for my XMAS star please?

[Robert9 (Robert)]

Hi Rob,
I checked on "Starry Night" and it seems that Voyager 2 might have been your target. I'm checking Stellarium to see if it has any other ideas.
Hope you had a good Xmas.
Robert

[astroron (Ron)]

Hi Rob at 80°altitude at that time of the night a satellite would have to be very high to receive sunlight,probably in the 10,000km or higher orbit,but then it would be so small as to hardly be visible.
I would say it is a slow reentry of a piece of space junk or meteor coming in at a shallow angle,or even bouncing of the atmosphere.
I have seen bright satellites at just about every hour of the night while observing but they have been close to the SCP.
Just a matter of interest,I have seen iridium satellites flair more than once.
Cheers
PS I hope Robert is joking. ?

[Robert9 (Robert)]

Sorry, bum steer. Forget to check where you were - Brisbane, a lot further north than Melbourne. Voyager 2 "might" have been viewable at about 7º above the horizon. Searched through both Starry Night and Stellarium without success, although I did note one satellite to the S.E., but it was rising.
Sorry Rob, your Xmas star will have to remain anonymous.
Back to sleep.
Robert

P.S. Cheers Ron.

[SteveInNZ]

Voyager is about 4 times further away from Earth than Pluto. My guess is that you didn't see Voyager.

Just ran the time through HeavenSat for Brisbane and found three bright objects at that time and two of them are going in the opposite direction so that narrows it down to Seasat 1 (1978-064A).

It left the Earth shadow at 2143 (Alt=51, Az=203) heading down to set at 2149 (Az=202). Mag=4.0.

Or it might have been Santa heading home for a beer.

Steve.

[astroron (Ron)]

Voyager 2 is about sixteen billion five hundred million killometers from earth,and is not visible to be seen by any human eye or man made instrument.
It is only contactable by giant radio telescopes,round trip light time is 37 hours 14 minutes.
Definitely not voyager 2 Robert.
Cheers

[RobF (Rob)]

Thanks everyone for checking it out for me. Did cross my mind Santa could be showing off

I wonder if the full moon would have contributed to brightness? Sounds like Seasat 1 was still just in sunlight at the time.

[phomer (Paul)]

Rob,

Looks like it could be the SeaSat 1 satellite.

Regards

Paul

[Robert9 (Robert)]

Originally Posted by astroron

Voyager 2 is about sixteen billion five hundred million killometers from earth,and is not visible to be seen by any human eye or man made instrument.
It is only contactable by giant radio telescopes,round trip light time is 37 hours 14 minutes.
Definitely not voyager 2 Robert.
Cheers

Maybe I need to upgrade my Starry Night 6 ? Or maybe I need a few days to recover from Xmas dinner.
Robert

[RobF (Rob)]

Thanks for checking anyway Robert.
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