Is there an object orbiting the moon?

As of right now, I have just witnessed twice an object go by the moon. approx 8pm and 8:10pm Eastern.
I have a small celestron astromaster with a zhummel zoom lens.
The object is roundish and dark colored looking, brownish. The scope is clear and no obstruction in my view from the back yard . Is there any country to date with anything orbiting the moon? China perhaps?
I can not get pictures with my scope. I thought I was seeing things until, it came into view again. Gonna go back out for another look.

I think there are a couple of satellites orbiting the moon now.
Try googling artificial satellites moon.

I saw it to, right at about the same time. At first because of the haze around it where i live i thought it might be a star but i watched it for another minute until my eyes adjusted and it looked like a small orange colored streak going across and around the bottom right part.

Good to know i wasnt seeing things, but i can remember thinking i saw it before too.

Man, I need a telescope bad. I have to wait until Dec. Though or Jan. GRR. I'm going to get the one with the camera on it. . Try to anyway.

Thanks for the replies. Thought it was me. I've been viewing now since then. The first object appeared much larger though. I am just curious if it was a fragment of these asteroids that will be coming close in the next few days?
the second object did appear more orange-ish.
BTW, Jupiter looking good. Just popped up. Gonna be hard to observe much with this bright moon.

Do these satellites actually orbit around the moon or just pass between the moon and the earth?

It is doubtful that you could see with a small telescope an object orbiting the moon unless it is quite, quite large.

Saying that you thought it was a star indicates that it was seen away from the Moon's surface. Nothing is going to be orbiting the Moon in ten minutes, so that must mean there were two objects.

I firmly believe that the US has bases on the Moon. My view then is to wonder if you simply did not see two objects ON THE WAY TO the Moon and they were not actually in orbit around the Moon.

As long as they avoid the moon "no fly zones" everything should be ok

reply to post by Dr. Strange


Here's an older NASA article on moon orbiting satellites most of the missions discussed are currently ongoing

Who's Orbiting the Moon

The GRAIL mission is running right now with two different craft headed to the moon. Their solar sails apparently deployed and all is going well.

NASA Grail Mission update

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Whatever happened to the DoD's x-37 B that was launched last year? you notice it was never talked about after the launch..

hmmmm..

Originally posted by Eye of Horus
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

Whatever happened to the DoD's x-37 B that was launched last year? you notice it was never talked about after the launch..

hmmmm..

Isn't that the one that disappeared. Or, am I thinking about something else.

reply to post by Eye of Horus


The X-37b OTV-1 maiden voyage landed last December, (3rd?). The second X-37B OTV-2 was launched in March and has been in earth orbit for 212 days on its way to its full 270 day mission.

X-37b OTV-2

Some guy on Space.com photographed OTV-2.

x37b-space-plane-skywatchers

reply to post by Eye of Horus

Are you thinking of this one?

Military loses Hypersonic Aircraft.....OOOPS

That one still has me wondering and is more than a little embarrassing I'd guess. It's amazing what the Government can seemingly screw up or lose and treat like a perfectly routine incident. Grail is unrelated though...

Err...This reply was meant for Manhater's msg. I clicked on the wrong one and am a bit too tired.

reply to post by iforget


Thanks for that. Suprising to see how much stuff is actually up there

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Thanks for mentioning the GRAIL mission, but I don't think the spacecraft(s) would be in line of sight between us and the moon. Taking a three month long trip to the moon would be a highly elliptical flight path, if detectable they wouldn't be near the moon from our perspective until they achieve lunar orbit or very close to. Even a fast trajectory like the Apollo's took wouldn't get the spacecraft near the moon in our line of sight its whole path. I'm not sure they show the GRAIL flight path, they have a fairly decent one of JUNO, and if you could see JUNO, you wouldn't get JUNO and Jupiter in the same field of view until it got there.

Anyway I'm not sure what kind of power a telescope would have to be to see a lunar satellite. LRO is orbiting very close to the lunar surface, slightly elliptical, but to see it I would think the outline of the moon would have to be nearly a straight horizon, and not a several hundred mile curved area. The moon is 2,160 miles in diameter, the LRO is like 20 feet, or the size of an SUV, actually a large satellite by comparison.

reply to post by Manhater

Meade and Celestron sells some good, cheap beginners and more advance telescopes. But you'll have to buy your camera and adapter separate. Never heard of all in one, but i could be wrong
Always a good new years present of course

reply to post by intergalactic fire


I'm thinking about something like this. It's got the camera attached already too it. I just plug it into the computer.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


The Falcons were intended to crash into the ocean suppling about 9 minutes of hypersonic flight data among other things, so an early automatic abort of the second test was not a success, it was also not far from the original flight plan.

reply to post by Illustronic
Thanks for the clarifications. I can read through press releases and summary data sheets with the best of them, but I'll never claim to be an astro-physicist. I hadn't considered the trip time indicating a rather round a-bout way of getting there. Good point. Hmmm