What did I see??

[Jeremy Parker (Jeremy)]

Day:Friday the 4th, Time: 11.00 pm.
As the heat abated tonight in Melbourne, I took my grab and go SW120 f/5 outside for a view. The sky was clear and you could feel just a very light breeze on your skin. What a glorious night it is tonight as I aim my scope at my favorite open star cluster, the Pleiades. I had a Hyperion 17mm 68 afov eyepiece on, which would have given a X35 mag and a 1.92 degree fov and the Pleiades is still too wide to fit into the fov.
I was observing for about 10 minutes when I notice a dim star like object moving across the Pleiades field in an easterly direction at an elevation of about 10 degrees.I followed it for a full 2 minutes and it took about 11 secs to cover the fov of my scope,each time, as I repeatedly shift my scope to keep up with it. I have seen shooting stars all too often and they are usually very fast.
This one was too slow, as you can track it for a full two minutes and it is invisible to the naked eye. Whatever it is, it had you guessing??
Had any one seen a shooting star, a meteorite, that you can track for a full 2 minutes duration?

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by Jeremy Parker

Day:Friday the 4th, Time: 11.00 pm.
As the heat abated tonight in Melbourne, I took my grab and go SW120 f/5 outside for a view. The sky was clear and you could feel just a very light breeze on your skin. What a glorious night it is tonight as I aim my scope at my favorite open star cluster, the Pleiades. I had a Hyperion 17mm 68 afov eyepiece on, which would have given a X35 mag and a 1.92 degree fov and the Pleiades is still too wide to fit into the fov.
I was observing for about 10 minutes when I notice a dim star like object moving across the Pleiades field in an easterly direction at an elevation of about 10 degrees.I followed it for a full 2 minutes and it took about 11 secs to cover the fov of my scope,each time, as I repeatedly shift my scope to keep up with it. I have seen shooting stars all too often and they are usually very fast.
This one was too slow, as you can track it for a full two minutes and it is invisible to the naked eye. Whatever it is, it had you guessing??
Had any one seen a shooting star, a meteorite, that you can track for a full 2 minutes duration?

Just a good old high flying satellite, probably in an orbit of about 10.000 kms.
Google "heavens above" if you are not already signed up and put inthe time and it will give you the name of the satellite.
Cheers

[Forgey (Paula)]

Yep I would say a satellite, quiet a few passing over at 11pm from my location in melbourne according to heavens-above.

could be this one:
H-2A ROCKET BODY3.423:01:2510°NW23:05:4542°NNE23:26:2610°E

or

BREEZE-M DEB (TANK)4.522:55:5510°NNW23:05:5837°NNE23:05:5837°NNE

[OICURMT]

Probably the second one, as the tight FoV might eliminate the other one (unless 27km of separation shifts the track that much).

Anyone image Jupiter last night? I noticed the track for Breeze get close to Jupiter, someone may have recorded it...

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

27km is enough to affect the track of LEOs.

I prefer CalSky to Heavens-Above but YMMV. For both you need a reasonably accurate latitude, longitude and time. CalSky will let you specify an area of sky to which to restrict the results. I've explained the method to do the restriction in another post maybe a year or so back but I can't find that one. It's not difficult, just not obvious.

[Jeremy Parker (Jeremy)]

Thanks for all the comments and input.
A bit wiser now.
Hope to see the ISS next time...should be quite a sight.

Happy New Years!