General Satellite Question

In fact this is the ONLY visible reporting in the first half of August from Heavens Above on these satellites from your city:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/df23ec734a0d.jpg[/atsimg]

9.7 magnitude... bright little suckers.

Can we say "Start over?".. bleh

Bright? These were not very bright they were dim..if you shifted for any reason you would lose them and it would take second to find them. This may have to do with the light pollution from our streetlights and the city near by..tho

Originally posted by the4thhorseman
Awesome...thanks for the link! If my time was off. I thought it was 10 maybe it was 9 then it may be Iridium 47.

The Iridium satellites dont fit your description.
Those satellites are interesting in their own right though, they are normally too faint to see, but for a period of ten seconds or so they flare up to very bright, then fade back to invisibleness. As you saw, the heavens-above website calculates exactly what time these events will occur, when they are just in the exact right place for the sun to reflect off them in the right way.

Originally posted by the4thhorseman
Bright? These were not very bright they were dim..if you shifted for any reason you would lose them and it would take second to find them. This may have to do with the light pollution from our streetlights and the city near by..tho

edit on 4-8-2011 by the4thhorseman because: (no reason given)

Oh, sorry I was being coy. The moon is a -12.74 so yes they are pretty dim. Negative on the scale is brighter, positive is dimmer. Just for comparison, Sirius, the brightest night star is a magnitude -1.46 and the ISS is about magnitude -2.2 to -3.0.

Originally posted by Lost_Mind

Originally posted by the4thhorseman
Bright? These were not very bright they were dim..if you shifted for any reason you would lose them and it would take second to find them. This may have to do with the light pollution from our streetlights and the city near by..tho

edit on 4-8-2011 by the4thhorseman because: (no reason given)

Oh, sorry I was being coy. The moon is a -12.74 so yes they are pretty dim. Negative on the scale is brighter, positive is dimmer. Just for comparison, Sirius, the brightest night star is a magnitude -1.46 and the ISS is about a magnitude -3.00

Nice I learned something new today!

reply to post by the4thhorseman


Only a short time ago the NOSS Doublets and Triplets are responsible for most multiple satellite sightings.

NOSS Double and Triple Satellite Formations

For a long time only the USA had the technology for maneuvering satellites into, and for maintaining, fixed formations. But exactly 1 year ago we learned that China now has the ability to maneuver its satellites into close doublet formations.

Two Chinese satellites rendezvous in orbit

Best regards,
Z

It could be the NOSS 3-1 and 3-2 then:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/08ba9e8da6d0.jpg[/atsimg]

10:19 pm low to the horizon to 44 deg. then low again in the NNW to SSE sky? It would have been going NNW to SSE and fading out into Earths shadow as it went.

reply to post by Lost_Mind


Keep in mind I am new to this but actually they where almost directly over head I would say about the the 2 o'clock position they were traveling from the south heading north.

reply to post by the4thhorseman


So you are looking at 70-80 deg alt (probably close to 75 deg.) or thereabouts which is twice the alts of the NOSS satellites. FYI, here is a pic to give you an idea how there alts and azimuth works:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d14cd232bdad.gif[/atsimg]

So an altitude of 44 would put it at halfway between the horizon and straight up over your head.

Hmmm... well after all this I'm back to UFO land for the time being.

So I guess these objects are still unidentified? Possibility of space junk?

reply to post by the4thhorseman


Yep, based on what I have found I can't say with any certainty what it is. Your thoughts may take you somewhere else, but I cant go beyond what I think is reasonable. They still behave like satellites but can't be positively identified through common means. Could be something military, off the public radar I suppose, but that is just a lame guess.

Its a ufo to me at this point and unless some new info comes up it will most likely stay that way for a while. You are free to speculate as to what it could be but I try to make a point of not letting my imagination drive me to my conclusions.

I do think that a sighting I had a couple of years ago was most likely one of these doublet satellites, though, so I am glad I learned what I have about them.

It could be space junk but to see how impossible it would be to ID it, follow this LINK and download the Analytical Graphics, open Google Earth, go to FILE then OPEN and open the .kmz file from where you saved it to and it will open up a graphical interface in GE showing in detail how much junk there is out there.

It displays in in real time if you so wish. On left left bar in GE you can check and uncheck as much detail you do or don't want.

This will give you an idea of what space junk is using that proggy:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/79668b9ef691.jpg[/atsimg]