I and 5 others saw something last night...help?

I was visiting a friend who lives in Champaign,IL last night, and roughly around the 9:30-9:50pm time frame directly over head we all saw something flying in the sky.
It was HIGH up, I'm talking high like commercial airflights and possibly higher.
It was moving fairly quickly, much more so than a 747 etc flies at.
We tracked this thing through a set of binoculars (7x50 Steiners, with the naked eye this thing just looked like a faint dot) and saw NO blinking lights of any kind.
After roughly 12-15 seconds it simply blacked out. It "disapeared" so to speak.
Obviously this was NOT a jet, however were there any satelites in this area last night?
If not then I am stumped.

Sounds like the classic behaviour of a satellite.

I've never used it but I think Heavens Above will be able to tell you if there was a satellite/ISS above you at the time.

reply to post by PublicDefenseCorp

On a clear night away from city lights you can see dozens of them.

reply to post by PublicDefenseCorp


It sounds like a satellite to me. There are thousands of them up there. The light from a satellite is just reflected sunlight. The satellite moves into the shadow of the earth and seems to go dark.

I live in indiana and The past few nights ive seen the same thing. No clouds for it to dissapear behind or anything.

I'm not surprised you are seeing these dots of light. Have a look at this computer generated map of the objects in orbit around our planet.

Satellites and other objects in orbit around earth.

Here's a link that will let you check on satellite locations.
Real Time Satellite Tracking

reply to post by PublicDefenseCorp


I would say that it was not a satellite that you saw. I say this because you said that you were following it with a pair of binoculars and just saw a dot. If it was a satellite, you would have been able to tell.

I actually saw something very similar the other night here in Germany. Except that the lights that I saw weren't moving. They were stationary and then just faded out. It was different. (There is a link to my account in my signature if anyone's interested.)

reply to post by octotom


How far are satellites out in space?

Altitudes of orbiting objects

Exerpt:
Altitude Miles Satellite Types
100-300 shuttles, space stations, spysats, navsats, hamsats
300-600 weather sats, photo sats
600-1,200 spysats, military comsats, hamsats
3,000-6,000 science sats
6,000-12,000 navsats
22,300 (stationary) communications, broadcast, weather
250-50,000 (elliptical) early-warning, Molniya broadcast, communications, spysats, hamsats

How Big Are Satellites?

So, how can a pair of binoculars see something the size of a tractor trailer at 100+ miles?

Originally posted by SeenMyShare
I'm not surprised you are seeing these dots of light. Have a look at this computer generated map of the objects in orbit around our planet.

Satellites and other objects in orbit around earth.

Here's a link that will let you check on satellite locations.
Real Time Satellite Tracking

WOW I was not expecting all of that, Thats amazing. I bet not all of them are "human" Satellites.

Originally posted by reesie45

Originally posted by SeenMyShare
I'm not surprised you are seeing these dots of light. Have a look at this computer generated map of the objects in orbit around our planet.

Satellites and other objects in orbit around earth.

Here's a link that will let you check on satellite locations.
Real Time Satellite Tracking

WOW I was not expecting all of that, Thats amazing. I bet not all of them are "human" Satellites.

Why is that? Just a hunch or gut feeling?

Sounds like you saw the ISS or Irridium. We saw ISS twice in the same week last month. It's always within an hour or less of sunset. Sometimes it's really bright & other times it is dimmer. It goes fast & when it gets in the earth's shadow, it just goes out like turning a light off.

reply to post by SeenMyShare



Wow I had forgotten about how many satellites we have up there!

Originally posted by Teabags

Originally posted by reesie45

Originally posted by SeenMyShare
I'm not surprised you are seeing these dots of light. Have a look at this computer generated map of the objects in orbit around our planet.

Satellites and other objects in orbit around earth.

Here's a link that will let you check on satellite locations.
Real Time Satellite Tracking

WOW I was not expecting all of that, Thats amazing. I bet not all of them are "human" Satellites.

Why is that? Just a hunch or gut feeling?

A gut feeling. Goes to show how much privacy we have.

Originally posted by took red pill
Sounds like you saw the ISS or Irridium. We saw ISS twice in the same week last month. It's always within an hour or less of sunset. Sometimes it's really bright & other times it is dimmer. It goes fast & when it gets in the earth's shadow, it just goes out like turning a light off.

This makes sense. Everything points to it being a satelite, I was just unaware of where to gain info on any that may be in THAT area at that given time..until now lol.

Thanks to everyone for the help.

p.s. - To the poster who said they feel it wasn't a satelite, you do have a point as well.
The binoculars were not cheap by any means, and following this thing I had it steady in my view and poof, it just vanished.
I suppose it COULD have been something else, satelite seems the most likely, however I will keep an open mind to any other options as well.

Originally posted by octotom
reply to post by PublicDefenseCorp

 

I would say that it was not a satellite that you saw. I say this because you said that you were following it with a pair of binoculars and just saw a dot. If it was a satellite, you would have been able to tell.

This is the one part that made me second guess it being a satelite. These binoculars are Steiner's 7x50 Military R, very well made and work extremely well in low light. Not cheap as I said before. You can find them online for as cheap as $700 I believe, however mine were given to me from military family members. These have made it able for me to tell jets from just about anything I've seen thus far...except THIS. It was still just a "dot" because it was that far away. So being a satelite would make sense, I don't expect a binocular, even like these to be able to tell detail at that distance...you never really know though I suppose.