Thin object moved in front of moon

I am hoping this is in the correct forum.

A few years ago i was sitting out my back garden on a very clear night with a full moon, and was observing the moon with a very average set of binoculars.

The zoom was such that the whole moon was just about visible to me, but with great clarity. As i was observing the moon, at just under half way down the moon from the right side a thin black line appeared, grew to be about 1/5th of the width of the moon and then crossed over at a linear speed and vanished as it left the left side of the moon. The line was very thin in comparison to its length (like a hair). It must have taken about 3-4 seconds roughly to cross.

I am sure there is an easy explanation to this and it occurs often to others but i have never worked it out and always been curious to get an answer.

Im fairly sure it was not something in my eye.

Thanks,
Gareth.

[edit on 29/3/2007 by GarethAyres]

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Fixed title spelling

[edit on 29/3/07 by masqua]

Originally posted by GarethAyres
I am hoping this is in the correct forum.

A few years ago i was sitting out my back garden on a very clear night with a full moon, and was observing the moon with a very average set of binoculars.

The zoom was such that the whole moon was just about visible to me, but with great clarity. As i was observing the moon, at just under half way down the moon from the right side a thin black line appeared, grew to be about 1/5th of the width of the moon and then crossed over at a linear speed and vanished as it left the left side of the moon. The line was very thin in comparison to its length (like a hair). It must have taken about 3-4 seconds roughly to cross.

I am sure there is an easy explanation to this and it occurs often to others but i have never worked it out and always been curious to get an answer.

Im fairly sure it was not something in my eye.

Thanks,
Gareth.

That's a good description, and I haven't got a ready explanation.

Did the line look sharp or fuzzy - that is, was it in focus?

well it can be anything maybe a meteor?still probably ufo^^

it looked very sharp, fixed size.

It must of been something in orbit around the earth, but the size thing kinda confused me. As if it was in orbit that far up and i could see it with little magnification then it must of been massive. Im not up to the maths but im guessing it would of been bigger than anything i was aware we had in space.

I did think maybe it was the space station we have, but is that big enough to be seen? I didnt think so.

Originally posted by GarethAyres
it looked very sharp, fixed size.

It must of been something in orbit around the earth, but the size thing kinda confused me. As if it was in orbit that far up and i could see it with little magnification then it must of been massive. Im not up to the maths but im guessing it would of been bigger than anything i was aware we had in space.

I did think maybe it was the space station we have, but is that big enough to be seen? I didnt think so.

If 1/5th the size of the moon and 200 km up (a very LOW orbit), and straight overhead, I get that it would be 350 meters long. Big, but not unimaginably huge.
A good upper bound for alow Earth orbiter would be on the order of 3 km.

When I read your statement, I couldn't help but think of a video that was done by the G'ment. I had too search for it a bit, but found it. They have 2 physist's and aeronautical engineers tht are in the discussion. Though it is short and sweet, it was held by both the Russian and USA G'ments until recently.

www.youtube.com...

The shape in that video is exactly what i am describing, but i think the one i seen was bigger considering the perspective.

What i seen also moved at a linear speed, thats why i assumed it was in orbit.

I thought people were going to be able to give me a quick and logical explanation for this, its cool that it might be a bit more interesting that a satellite.

Gareth.

Allred, that’s a great video clip, not seen that one before. I’m sure there are lots more like it or even better stored away somewhere.