How many satellites in 5 minutes?

Hi, yesterday night i was out and i saw 7 lights mooving in diferent but straight directions in less than 5 minutes.
They looked exactly as a satellite, a bright "starish" light moving straight across the sky among all other stars. Sometimes i felt they mooved in a strange way but i believe it was my head moving..in any case at one point two of them apeard at the same time and crossed eachothers line.
Is this normal?

[edit on 9-2-2010 by gusan]

reply to post by gusan


Seems normal.
There are tons of sites that track all satellites from around the world.
Get a map, and track which ones cross your viewing angle.

Here's a good start!
Track Satellites

Thanks.

I just felt it was so many in such short time.
Eh...i live in nirthern Sweeden by the way..could you help me with the tracking?

Yes this is normal, there are something like 2500-3000 satellites in orbit around the Earth, it's impossible to know the exact number due to undisclosed satellites used for military purposes... this is a guess so if a smarty pants comes up with what they think is the real number it's going to be out by a few guaranteed! I’m out a fair bit with my telescope at night and notice at least 5-10 within say 10-20 mins a night...

Originally posted by gusan
Thanks.

I just felt it was so many in such short time.
Eh...i live in nirthern Sweeden by the way..could you help me with the tracking?

here , hope this helps.

science.nasa.gov...">science.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by Majestic RNA
Yes this is normal, there are something like 2500-3000 satellites in orbit around the Earth, it's impossible to know the exact number due to undisclosed satellites used for military purposes... this is a guess so if a smarty pants comes up with what they think is the real number it's going to be out by a few guaranteed! I’m out a fair bit with my telescope at night and notice at least 5-10 within say 10-20 mins a night...

Just like to say I concur also a couple of hours after dusk seems to be the best time to spot them .I have often caught two passing each other in opposite directions.

reply to post by tarifa37




I think this may be due to the sun's relation to the Earth just after sundown; it tends to reflect off the satellites making them more observable in this time..

Actually, you can spot them anytime in the dark when you know when to look.

They really stick out moving.
ive even seen them indoors looking out my window when at bed, thas how much some can stick out.

keep an eye out for any that stop and/or turn...dont be fooled by ones that seem to speed up overhead then slow down further down...thats just a optical illusion...and often they seem to...trip along in a relatively straight line..another illusion.

Crossing paths is common, even though they dont actually cross paths, there are a few different levels and even though they may appear on the same level, there could be many miles difference in altitude between em.

keep looking up. it was a good show, wasn't it.

My one odd experience when looking up at the sky a few years ago... (in general its not too hard to spot them) but one night I saw two satellites following each other.. sure that seemed odd but i'd let that be... but then they started "chasing" each other and looping around and whatnot. Then they vanished... so that was a very odd experience. To each his own.. but completely sober that is what I saw... *shrugs* who knows...

Originally posted by SaturnFX
keep an eye out for any that stop and/or turn...

Yeh
They aint satelites if they stop and turn as satelites follow an orbit going one direction.

understand what your on about though when they move a little, straight line but side to side a little, its the curvature of the earth.

Originally posted by Sparkey76

Originally posted by SaturnFX
keep an eye out for any that stop and/or turn...

Yeh
They aint satelites if they stop and turn as satelites follow an orbit going one direction.

understand what your on about though when they move a little, straight line but side to side a little, its the curvature of the earth.

That was the point, that any that literally stop or turn are genuine UFOs and not satellite.
pretty obvious that the OPs is wanting to find ET flying around and so, know what is and isnt special...anything in a relative straight line (jerky straight movements and a little wobbly is normal) is a satellite...anything else is...well, not a satellite...

quickly run through this checklist if something does do that:
Why is it not a:
airplane
bird
balloon
shooting star
firefly

once you have a reasonable enough answer as to why it couldn't be those things, then yep...your seeing something that could be interesting enough to make people call you crazy

Most ive seem within that frame of time would be around 4.

Also ive tried tracking em using stars as references and most appear to take a slightly curved path, which id put down to fact they are orbiting a sphere after all ... although i did once see one that curved alot more than it should have, was slow curve but didnt expect an almost 45 degree change in course just from the curvature of the sky. Ill second Sparkey76 with teh little wobble, although I dont believe the little wobble is from the curve of the earth its more your eyes causing that, the slightly curved flight path is from the curvature of the earth.

Crossing one another is normal from my own experience. Saw two basically cross each other right over one other one time... half expected to see a little flash as they collided , but no such luck

If you havent seen a Iridium flare, keep watching you might get lucky and see a biggie, really is quite surprising the first time you see an iridium satellite flare up to mag -8.

Now if you ever see 4 'satellites' traveling in the same direction, in formation shaped like an L (two at the bend one at the back, and one out the side) all within a centimeter of each other at arms length, post it, I still cant figure out what they were when i saw em.

Edit:- Hmm just remembered , my brother has a GPS unit that actually displays satellite information on it, ie the ones passing over with direction and ID tag, not sure if its GPS satellites only or all satellites... not sure of the brand, 'Garmin' I think, handy tool to make sure it IS a satellite your watching

[edit on 9-2-2010 by BigfootNZ]

november 2007 the night of the leonoid meteor shower, 3 of us were out looking to the skies . at first we saw the odd meteor tumbing to earth, then for the next hour we saw 21 ufo's, they couldn't of been satelites as some were swimming like, as if in pairs, but catching up with each other as one got a head of the other . to this day we do not know what they were, oh yeh they were Unidentified Flying Objects.

we called a friend out to have a look, she looked up saw them and said "oh yeh" and went back in to to watch tv, as if it were nothing!

Originally posted by Majestic RNA
reply to post by tarifa37

 

I think this may be due to the sun's relation to the Earth just after sundown; it tends to reflect off the satellites making them more observable in this time..

You got it. When you see a satellite, you are seeing sunlight reflected from the spacecraft. That is why if you watch one moving across the sky from west to east at dusk, they get dim and wink out as they pass into the Earths shadow.

Originally posted by SaturnFX

Originally posted by Sparkey76

Originally posted by SaturnFX
keep an eye out for any that stop and/or turn...

Yeh
They aint satelites if they stop and turn as satelites follow an orbit going one direction.

understand what your on about though when they move a little, straight line but side to side a little, its the curvature of the earth.

That was the point, that any that literally stop or turn are genuine UFOs and not satellite.
pretty obvious that the OPs is wanting to find ET flying around and so, know what is and isnt special...anything in a relative straight line (jerky straight movements and a little wobbly is normal) is a satellite...anything else is...well, not a satellite...

quickly run through this checklist if something does do that:
Why is it not a:
airplane
bird
balloon
shooting star
firefly

once you have a reasonable enough answer as to why it couldn't be those things, then yep...your seeing something that could be interesting enough to make people call you crazy

I knew you knew mate, just confirming and moving the conversation so others would know.

You got it. When you see a satellite, you are seeing sunlight reflected from the spacecraft. That is why if you watch one moving across the sky from west to east at dusk, they get dim and wink out as they pass into the Earths shadow.

yes, but you can still see them at midnight and beyond, directly overhead, due to the height of the orbit, plus you get the light reflecting from the earth, not just the sun, but yes they do dim when going right into the shadows.

Were you at the Gilliland Ranch?

reply to post by gusan

I like the website www.heavensabove.com website for satellite tracking. However, I haven't found a way to go back in time except clicking 1 day previous at a time - and it will take (nearly) forever at that rate to get back to July 2008 which is a date I need to check.

Also, gusan, you don't mention what time of night you saw these "lights." They can't be seen beyond a certain time, which depends on your location, because as another poster noted, satellites are reflecting sunlight. Therefore they usually are seen in the first couple of hours of darkness.

One July 4th (Independence Day here in the US) about 20 years ago I was riding home from a fireworks show in rural Kansas with my brother in his car with the top down. I was watching the stars while he drove. Strangely I noticed that in the small patch of sky directly overhead, there were a number of fairly dim, apparent "satellites" moving exactly like satellites do, except they were going in all different directions, and all at the same time. It was like a bunch of UFOs up there watching the show on Earth. Pretty crazy. My brother pulled over and we watched them for several minutes before driving again. And I've been watching satellites all my life, since the drive-in movie days when I'd be lying on the roof of the car looking for them instead of watching the movie. Every July 4th I look up but haven't observed the same phenomenon since that one time.

reply to post by Nirvana999

Here's how to do it.
1) Click "previous" once
2) Note the URL in your address bar and see the parameter "Date"
3) Convert the date you are looking for to a Modified Julian Date (available variously online).
4) Subtract from the MJD this offset: 15016
5) Replace the "Date" parameter with the result and click "go".

This should get you to the date you want but there is a problem. Heavens Above (as well as all other online satellite finders) uses current orbital elements for its predictions and "postdictions". Over time orbital elements change so the further ahead or back you go, the less accurate the results will be.

Ok, new offset. It works now.

[edit on 2/9/2010 by Phage]

yessir, catching the occasional satellite here in south Louisiana is the closest thrill I get to actual UFOs...BTW, I have seen some right after dusk, but most show up round 400am-500am, just before sunup - must be the angle of earth's shadow down here...Once I tracked 3 in the sky lit up at the same time...far apart from one another, of course and in separate directions... aren't they cruising along at like 17,000 m/h?


Just kept thinking..."loop...figure 8...do SOMETHING ODD!!!"

but alas...just 'birds'