Help Identifying what I just saw crossing the night sky... Probably not a UFO, so dont get Excited!!

Hi folks,
This is my first ever thread. I am mostly a lurker here, but I do post on occasion if I have something I think worth saying. I've been meaning to write an introduction for a while now, but I never get round to it. Anyway, thats for another day...

I was just out in the back garden for a cigarette and noticed a fairly bright star like light travelling across the sky. I am in the Darlington area in the UK, and the time was about 0055 GMT. Its probably worth mentioning that while I am outside quite a lot at night, and I do stargaze a fair amount, I do not have a great depth of knowledge about astronomical things. I have often seen satellites passing, and shooting stars etc, but I don't recall ever seeing 1 quite so bright. As best I can work out (though I may be completely wrong) it was travelling across the sky roughly from ESE to WSW, and took about45 secs to a minute to traverse the visible sky from my viewpoint (probably about 1/4 - 1/3 of the dome). At first it seemed quite dim, like satellite's I have seen before, but after a couple of seconds watching, it dimmed, then got a lot brighter. Im kind of putting the light difference down to high altitude cloud or what not. It seemed to get at least as bright as venus.
I have done a quick google on current location of the ISS, and if the website I found is to be trusted, then the ISS is not around these parts, and apparently in Earths shadow. Im sure theres plenty of other things up there it could have been, and i'm just wondering if anyone can possibly pinpoint it?

On a side note, there was a couple of moments where it seemed to zig-zag a bit on its path, but I have read about similar optical illusions that can occur when observing the sky. I've never really experienced it before, and I wonder if the brightness might have emphasised the effect...

Either that or I was watching a shiny new spaceship joyride!!!

Thanks for any help in advance!

cheers,
L

reply to post by AbdulAlhazred


I haven't a clue what you may have seen. But on the other hand, I gave you a S&F, for taking the time to post a well written explanation for your first thread....

Des

It sounds like you saw the ISS. I'm not far from you and there was a pass listed for my location at around that time.

If go here and enter your precise location, you will see the pass listed.

Edit to add - As you suggested, the zig-zaging is actually an optical illusion similar to the autokinetic effect that is quite common when observing satellites.

reply to post by AbdulAlhazred


Hey there, i saw too a bright star like light cruising by in the sky, pretty high up. The light kept fading every now & again too. It was traveling from the west to the east when i saw it. I'm on the east yorks coast, it carried on east over the north sea. I didn't hear any sound from it either. Kept watching it till it faded away out of view.
I was thinking possibly a satellite, so didn't bother to film. It also flashed a red light only once though as it was over the sea.
Time must of been around 1:10am GMT.
Wonder what it was?

If you can't identify it, it's a UFO until identified. That's what an unidentified flying object is. Just sayin'.

reply to post by AbdulAlhazred


Good on you for taking note of direction and time and your even-handed manner of describing the event

Try this: Go to www.heavens-above.com and create an account (free). Add your location, and look at the ISS for today. You'll see a table like this:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ISS - Visible Passes | Home | Info. | Orbit | Help |



Search period start: 07 June 2012 00:00
Search period end: 17 June 2012 00:00
Location: Darlington, 54.5249°N, 1.5596°W
Orbit: 391 x 406 km, 51.6° (Epoch: 06 June)

Passes to include: visible only all

Click on the date to get a star chart and other pass details.


Date Brightness Start Highest point End
(mag) Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az. Time Alt. Az.
07 Jun -3.2 00:50:00 10° WSW 00:53:05 46° S 00:56:12 10° E
07 Jun -3.1 02:26:06 10° W 02:29:11 44° S 02:32:16 10° ESE
07 Jun -2.9 23:56:02 10° SW 23:59:02 38° SSE 00:02:03 10° E
08 Jun -3.2 01:32:00 10° W 01:35:07 49° S 01:38:14 10° ESE
08 Jun -2.4 03:08:21 10° W 03:11:05 26° SSW 03:13:50 10° SE

At 00:50:00 there was an ISS pass over Darlington with a magnitude of -3.2. That's VERY bright. There will be another later on at 02:26, nearly as bright. The ISS flyover was from the WSW to the south. You probably saw the ISS. It looks sort of blueish and moves fairly quickly -- less than five minutes from horizon to horizon.

link to map of flyover path

Happy viewing !

Edit to add:

At first it seemed quite dim, like satellite's I have seen before, but after a couple of seconds watching, it dimmed, then got a lot brighter

This is fairly typical for an ISS flyover; it is further away initially, and since it is approximately 250 miles above the surface and following the curvature of the Earth, the ISS brightens as it gets closer to your location, then usually dimming again as it moves away.

reply to post by Destinyone


Thanks for that! Right back at you!

Yep must of been ISS thanks for the links FireballStorm & argentus.
Star for ya both & OP Cheers.

303

Yep, the ISS it is. I got my lefty and my righty mixed up again!!! It came from WSW...
Thanks for all the quick responses. The website I found had the ISS over russia about a minute after I had seen it. Geography's not my strong point, so I don't know if that makes sense, but it didn't to me at the time!

Im surprised I haven't seen that before, or at least I dont recall it anyway. Very cool. Will definitely be using the website linked above in future.

Once again, thanks for the responses. Guess this probably happens on here once a week or something!

cheers,
L

Originally posted by AkumaStreak
If you can't identify it, it's a UFO until identified. That's what an unidentified flying object is. Just sayin'.

edit on 6/6/2012 by AkumaStreak because: (no reason given)

Yep, I knew this would be said, and I pretty much agree, but as you've probably read, it was only a UFO to me!

(I rhymed that just for you!)

Originally posted by FireballStorm
It sounds like you saw the ISS. I'm not far from you and there was a pass listed for my location at around that time.

If go here and enter your precise location, you will see the pass listed.

Edit to add - As you suggested, the zig-zaging is actually an optical illusion similar to the autokinetic effect that is quite common when observing satellites.

edit on 6-6-2012 by FireballStorm because: (no reason given)

Thanks for the link. This was the 1 that made me realise my mistake with the direction.

As I said, this was the first time I've really noticed that illusion, and I can understand why people think they're seeing intelligent control.

Thanks again,
L

reply to post by argentus


Thanks for the info. You also called it right.
Well, this thread is a bit pointless now. Im a bit new to this, so can I close it or could you?

cheers,
L

Originally posted by AbdulAlhazred
Hi folks,
This is my first ever thread. I am mostly a lurker here, but I do post on occasion if I have something I think worth saying. I've been meaning to write an introduction for a while now, but I never get round to it. Anyway, thats for another day...

I was just out in the back garden for a cigarette and noticed a fairly bright star like light travelling across the sky. I am in the Darlington area in the UK, and the time was about 0055 GMT. Its probably worth mentioning that while I am outside quite a lot at night, and I do stargaze a fair amount, I do not have a great depth of knowledge about astronomical things. I have often seen satellites passing, and shooting stars etc, but I don't recall ever seeing 1 quite so bright. As best I can work out (though I may be completely wrong) it was travelling across the sky roughly from ESE to WSW, and took about45 secs to a minute to traverse the visible sky from my viewpoint (probably about 1/4 - 1/3 of the dome). At first it seemed quite dim, like satellite's I have seen before, but after a couple of seconds watching, it dimmed, then got a lot brighter. Im kind of putting the light difference down to high altitude cloud or what not. It seemed to get at least as bright as venus.
I have done a quick google on current location of the ISS, and if the website I found is to be trusted, then the ISS is not around these parts, and apparently in Earths shadow. Im sure theres plenty of other things up there it could have been, and i'm just wondering if anyone can possibly pinpoint it?

On a side note, there was a couple of moments where it seemed to zig-zag a bit on its path, but I have read about similar optical illusions that can occur when observing the sky. I've never really experienced it before, and I wonder if the brightness might have emphasised the effect...

Either that or I was watching a shiny new spaceship joyride!!!

Thanks for any help in advance!

cheers,
L

Well...if it wasn't a UFO, then you've already identified it...which means, that this whole thread is useless. -And, I'm not excited as it takes much more than a light in the sky to get my attention.

Originally posted by 303inMyBrain
Yep must of been ISS thanks for the links FireballStorm & argentus.

Star for ya both & OP Cheers.

303

So you saw it as well? I wonder what your red flash was? hope you weren't being naughty.....

offtopic: Nice handle. Do you own 1? Ive got a Future Retro Revolution. Its a sweet TB303 clone. Paired with a DSI Tempest at the moment, but I want to go back to the acidlab miami (808 clone) for drums.

Easy

reply to post by Serenity777


Rude of you...shame on you. I hope people aren't as rude to you when you post a thread.

I found it interesting, and well written, as did others. OP ignore people like this. They often never have anything nice to say.

Des

Originally posted by Serenity777


Well...if it wasn't a UFO, then you've already identified it...which means, that this whole thread is useless. -And, I'm not excited as it takes much more than a light in the sky to get my attention.

Thats why I said it probably wasn't a UFO in the title. I knew that it was more than likely a satellite or something similar. I just wanted to know what it was. I now know, and the post above yours is me asking for the thread to be closed as its now pointless.
This is also in the Space Exploration forum, not the UFO forum.

So an unusually (to me) bright light traversing the sky wont get your attention, but a pointless thread on a conspiracy forum does?

Originally posted by Destinyone
reply to post by Serenity777

 

Rude of you...shame on you. I hope people aren't as rude to you when you post a thread.

I found it interesting, and well written, as did others. OP ignore people like this. They often never have anything nice to say.

Des

Thanks again. Its cool, I knew it would happen. Folk just cant help themselves! Maybe he/she thinks im on a star hunt or something, but if I was, I would kind of be defeating the purpose by making all these individual replies. I should learn to multi-quote!

Your a regular face on this site. Can I close this thread to avoid any more pointless posts on this pointless thread?

cheers,
L

reply to post by AbdulAlhazred


I saw a MOD (argentus) posted in your thread. You can U2U them, ask if they will close it. It's up to them really.

Des

reply to post by Destinyone


U2U'd Argentus requesting to close the thread. Its in Mod's hands now....

Thanks again Des, Firestorm, Argentus, and 303.
I didn't have to ponder what I saw for long!
You're a credit to the site.
cheers,
L

reply to post by AbdulAlhazred


While training my telescope on what I thought was Saturn from my home in Florida my wife and myself saw a point of light traveling from ENE to WSW . It took over as the brightest but moving object for a few seconds and then seemed to turn ever so slightly to the South. Then it decreased in brightness until it disappeared . I have seen something like this traveling in the same direction a week or two before but at a lower latitude . This could be a large meteor orbiting Earth . I thought Satellites were launched from west to East thus elimination them as the object .