Satellite?

Saw a bright light going fast constant speed through the night sky tonight Latitude about 52 North, object going from West to East.

Just a single white light very bright no flashers, I used binoculars to get a close up, still no flashers.....

It looked very low to be a satellite, but it was atleast the same height as you would see a Jumbo Jet flying at, and it was travelling faster than a Jumbo would do maybe 2 or 3 times as fast, but of course without any height or size it's impossible to say how fast or high it was.

Would you say it was just a satellite?

Are there any clips on the net of satellites crossing the night sky?

[edit on 25/4/2006 by Wig]

I have seen these lights also but they look very high and go in and out view they are going west to east but i cant tell you what they are.

One thing you can do is try to visualize in your head where the sun is relative to where you are stnading, even though it is night. If the light dissappears approximately where the shadow of the earth would hit a satellite, then it is probably a satellite.

But if it goes from horizon to horizon it is probably not a satellite.

Originally posted by Ectoterrestrial
One thing you can do is try to visualize in your head where the sun is relative to where you are stnading, even though it is night. If the light dissappears approximately where the shadow of the earth would hit a satellite, then it is probably a satellite.

But if it goes from horizon to horizon it is probably not a satellite.

I think that may be more true the further south you go towards the equator. At latitudes 48 N - 52 N I have seen many satelites going from horizon to horizon, this one was slightly different in that it apeared to be slightly bigger than what I have seen before.

This is why I want a good telescope, so I could have zoomed right in on it.

Does anyone know where I can see video of satelites and maybe what a good close up looks like, (in orbit from earth, don't want any pics of satelites from 30' away!)

And satelites which do move across the night sky (noticeably from horizon to horizon i.e. presumably not geosyncronous ones)......what orbit are they on, presumably they all have to cross the equator at some point, so should they not be on north south or South - North Orbits. given that my latitude is 52N.

[edit on 26/4/2006 by Wig]

Sounds a lot like a satellite to me. I've seen hundreds, and what you describe is what I see all the time. As for using a telescope to watch satellites, unless you buy a huge expensive one with very VERY precise tracking via a motor drive, it's impossible to see them as they move to fast to follow.

Check out this site for lots of very usefull info.

www.hobbyspace.com...

I suppose you could use a satellite information program to see if you can predict when it would come back. If it is a civilian or declassified satellite, this might identify it as such.

They said on Calendar news( yorkshire local news) last night that the ISS would be visible in the night sky between 9.20 and 9.29 pm last night travelling west to east, maybe it was that.

I went to that site and there were no predicted sttelites at the time I saw this, the site says there are many rogue failed ones which they cannot predict.

But the paths of all the ones I looked up were indeed on roughly North South orbits, this one was definately West East (almost)

Originally posted by executioner
They said on Calendar news( yorkshire local news) last night that the ISS would be visible in the night sky between 9.20 and 9.29 pm last night travelling west to east, maybe it was that.

Excellent, that would probably match the time I saw it too. Only one question, that site above is supposed to predict the ISS aswell but they didn't. I'll have to recheck.

Thanks for the info.

Been back to the site and you are right the ISS was predicted at 21.23 - 21.29
and it's path looks like just what I would have seen

I hope this link works for you

www.heavens-above.com...

It's coming back again tonight (21:46) though it is closer to me and therefore it will be at a higher altitude, so I may not see it.

Glad I could help you out.
I doubt I'll be able to catch it tonight because it's looking like it will be a bit overcast.

That's pretty cool that you were able to come up with a potential source. Let us know what comes of it.

Yeah it was too cloudy tonight

I'm positive It was the ISS that I saw, maybe I'll see it again one day, now I know where to find its orbit predictions.... www.heavens-above.com

It was likely the ISS.

According to Heavens Above , it will pass over London again tonight at 21:46:43 ( GMT) with a Mag. -1.0.

Heavens Above London ISS link

So you should be able to go outside at around the same time tonight and see it again.

Just saw it again 22:09 as predicted by heavens above, pretty cool.