figure 8 satellite-this morning-anyone see?

hotspur (Chris) · #1 11-08-2012, 07:36 PM

Was up this morning,and noticed a satellite pass over at 5.30 am (location S.E QLD), I thought it was just the ISS but looking at the object-it was two circles joined together,wonder if anyone else saw it-near Orion.Certainly a different view-the wind must have cleared all the dust etc from sky,not sure which space station it was-but must have been some sort of panels.

I did see the usual ISS pass over at 6.10 am.Looked cool in almost daylight wth moon Jupiter and Venus in the blue sky.

koputai (Jason) · #2 12-08-2012, 11:08 AM

I didn't want to say anything as I thought I'd be called a loonie!

My wife and I saw this pass over Sydney last week. It was definitely two easily definable circles.

Like you, I thought it was ISS at first, but then it got a whole lot brighter and the two circles
really became obvious. It looked far bigger than the ISS. It was visible for maybe 15 seconds
before it faded away.

I searched on heavens-above but couldn't find anything visual at that time and place.

A quick bit of searching has me thinking it might be the Chinese Tiangong 1 station with the
Shenzhou spacecraft docked to it.

Click image for larger version

Name: china-tiangong-1-SPACE.jpg
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Size: 25.4 KB
ID: 120508

Cheers,
Jason.

deanm (Dean) · #3 12-08-2012, 11:32 AM

Chris & Jason: are your obsevations naked eye or assisted?

Dean

StephenM (Stephen) · #4 12-08-2012, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by koputai

I didn't want to say anything as I thought I'd be called a loonie!

My wife and I saw this pass over Sydney last week. It was definitely two easily definable circles.

Like you, I thought it was ISS at first, but then it got a whole lot brighter and the two circles
really became obvious. It looked far bigger than the ISS. It was visible for maybe 15 seconds
before it faded away.

I searched on heavens-above but couldn't find anything visual at that time and place.

A quick bit of searching has me thinking it might be the Chinese Tiangong 1 station with the
Shenzhou spacecraft docked to it.

Attachment 120508

Cheers,
Jason.

Hi Chris and Jason,

Not sure what this object would be, but it's not Tiangong-1 and Shenzhou 9. Shenzhou 9 undocked several weeks ago and has returned to Earth. And Seen and ophotographed the Chinese station several times, and it's a lot fainter than the ISS (as it's a lot smaller).

Cheers,
Stephen

koputai (Jason) · #5 12-08-2012, 03:41 PM

My observation was naked eye. The brightness was only short-lived, around 15 seconds, so likely a flare from solar panels. It was very bright though, I'd estimate Mag -5 or so.

Hmm, thanks Stephen. I wonder what it might be then.....

Cheers,
Jason.

hotspur (Chris) · #6 12-08-2012, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by koputai

My observation was naked eye. The brightness was only short-lived, around 15 seconds, so likely a flare from solar panels. It was very bright though, I'd estimate Mag -5 or so.

Hmm, thanks Stephen. I wonder what it might be then.....

Cheers,
Jason.

My observation was naked eye too,and same time frame,although maybe not quite as bright as Jason's observation-but close to it.

Really made sure I looked carefully-but it certainly did appear two little circles,may have been a minute or two before 5.30 AM.Experts like StephenM and VonTom will be able to shed light on this satellite.But I figured it must have been something like StephenM's image.

JetDragon (Dave) · #7 18-08-2012, 05:13 PM

Hi All

HAve just read this thread and believe I photographed this object on the evening of Aug 6 (around 18.23 local) passing from the SSW to NNW through the Spica/Mars/Saturn triangle.

At first glance I thought it was an aircraft but no strobes suggested a satellite - luckily the object flared during this 15 second exposure and then faded very rapidly

cheers

Dave

mozzie (Peter) · #8 19-08-2012, 06:06 PM

hi chris i was just chasing an iridium flare and noticed 2 points of light right next to each other going north then my flare some 3 seconds later and a little more to the north...sky safari had resurs-dk 1 in the right area and time i was observing this 2 points of light ..i don't know if this is what you were looking at but iv'e never seen anything like this before did anybody else see this !!!!!!!!!!!

koputai (Jason) · #9 22-09-2012, 11:09 AM

I saw this one again on Wednesday night, about 6:25pm, from Narrabeen. It's definitely one satellite with two distinct bright spots, and it's not the ISS.

It was travelling South to North (approx) at about 40 degrees elevation in the Western sky.

Cheers,
Jason.