can anyone explain what I've seen tonight?

Muddy Diver · #1 17-12-2005, 11:34 PM

Taking advantage of some semi clear skies to the north I was trying to find M33 Pinwheel galaxy when a "star" approx magnitude of between 0 and +2 entered the bottom of my fov travelling vertically at some speed. I was able to track moving the scope every 3-4 seconds as this was all it took for the "star" to travel from top to bottom whizzing past all the other stars in the area. I was expecting it to burn out at any point in time but it didn't! It was travelling much slower than the shooting stars I've seen and continued along at consistent brilliancy until I dared to lift my head to see if i could track it by eye, but lost it. I estimate that I tracked from the rough area of M33 approx, to +70 alt which took all of 15 - 20 secs. The time of the sighting was 21.40. Can anyone explain what it might have been please?

janoskiss (Steve H) · #2 17-12-2005, 11:37 PM

Satellite probably. I see them all the time at the eyepiece. But mag 0-2 sounds very bright.

[1ponders] (Paul) · #3 17-12-2005, 11:39 PM

It's a kick getting to see a satellite moveing through the eyepiece Mud. You'll get to see more and more of them don't worry about that. They are a pain in the butt for those of us you like to take a few pickies.

asimov (John) · #4 17-12-2005, 11:40 PM

A satellite, yep.

asimov (John) · #5 17-12-2005, 11:42 PM

If you want to see heaps of them, look at the orion nebula for a couple of hours.

[1ponders] (Paul) · #6 17-12-2005, 11:59 PM

I had a bit of a check on Starry Night and the only two that I could find that came close to that time are Cosmo 1076 at 9:30 mag 4.99 (very close to m33 and to the east) and Meteor Priroda at 9:52 mag 5.27 (closer then the Cosmo and to the west)

Mick (Michael) · #7 18-12-2005, 12:28 AM

Hi MD, from your location the ISS passed through Pegasus at 20:43 maybe that is what you saw. Have a look on Heavens-Above the pass was much higher here in Qld and south from my location.

johnno · #8 18-12-2005, 12:30 AM

Hi All,
According to this site

http://www.heavens-above.com/
The Hubble travelled through the nw about 21.15,and the ISS about 20.40,but it was in the wsw,so I am not sure just what it was,but the other members are certainly correct,it sounds like a Satellite,I believe the light reflected off the Satellite,is called an Iridium Flare.
Regards.
John

johnno · #9 18-12-2005, 12:41 AM

Looks like we were both typing at the same time Mick,
Regards.
John

Volans · #10 18-12-2005, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnno

Hi All,
According to this site

http://www.heavens-above.com/
The Hubble travelled through the nw about 21.15,and the ISS about 20.40,but it was in the wsw,so I am not sure just what it was,but the other members are certainly correct,it sounds like a Satellite,I believe the light reflected off the Satellite,is called an Iridium Flare.
Regards.
John

As per the other posts, it appears MD saw a satellite zip through the FOV. I was looking at Mars last night from Brisbane (after the big storm went through) and a satellite tracked right across the disc of Mars! I joked to myself that I had seen the MGS...lol. The transperancy after that storm was quite impressive but the seeing was a right shocker. Added to that Mars was momentarily washed out at times when a bolt of lightning flashed (the storm front had moved out to sea but was still visible low in the East).

In regard to an Iridium Flare, these are the bright flashes seen from the Iridium satellites. If a non Iridium Satellite flashes then there is a fair chance it is tumbling and therefore altering its reflectivity but as far as I know, nothing beats an Iridium Flare for brightness.

Peter.

Mick (Michael) · #11 18-12-2005, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnno

Looks like we were both typing at the same time Mick,
Regards.
John

Yes John we did. I managed to see the HST as well last night.

Muddy Diver · #12 18-12-2005, 06:38 PM

Wow...Loads of info and so fast. Cant thank everyone enough. Just a few points that I may not have stresssed enough initially. There was no trail, no elongated light streak, or twinkling. The luminosity was constant and it looked for all the world like one of the stars it was passing. Just that it seemed to be on a course. I looked on the website (thanks Johnno and Mick) and decided it must have been 'Iridium 47' as the details of its pass relative to my lat/long are exact along with the time. A useful site and one which I will add to my favourites

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #13 18-12-2005, 10:09 PM

Muddy,

If you can bare just staring at space with unaided eyes (no scope or binocs) for many hours you will see sattelites in all sorts of places during each night! They are a bit hard to spot after 11pm as the sun is moving behind Earth and they don't reflect as much. After midnight - forget it! About 2am you can start seeing them again as they reflect sunlight as the Sun reappears around the Earth again.

Sattelites seem to go in every direction, sometimes look like they will hit each other (probably hundreds of miles apart) some traverse half the sky and vanish (as they move out of the sunlight).

It can be quite an enjoyable night to occasionally leave the scope packed away and spend a night watching them, and meteors!

The Iridium Flares are certainly spectacular!!!!

johnno · #14 18-12-2005, 10:12 PM

Hi All,
MD,
very pleased you worked out what the object was,
Heavens Above is a great site for Identifing those type of objects,
I have often seen bright objects streaking through the sky,
The best I have ever seen was a Bolide,with a terrific smoke trail behind it,unfortunately,I was answering a call of nature at the time,and was in no position to bring the binoculars to my eyes.

Mick,
I also tried to see the ISS last night,but too much cloud cover here.
Regards.
John