How to tell a satellite from a ufo? Saw two very interesting UFO's last night!

Up in the east coast NJ last night around 3am, my buddy and I were satellite searching with our eyes, in his very dark back yard. The sky was crystal clear last night with a very minimal scattered cloud.

We saw a couple of the usual, solid static star-like lighs, moderately paced in a straight line that you typically see with satellites. However, the next thing we both had never seen before... I was just looking up then suddenly out of nowhere my eye picked up a white flash out of my peripheral, I closed in on it, and it flashed again, as it began to get closer, we could see a dim glow waning in and out, as if this something was turning, twisting constantly and a part of it was catching the light of the moon, which is what we accounted for the soft glow waning in and out... But then there was an actual flicker, a strobe, which looked just like an aircraft strobe, it was white, however, the odd things about this too was, each flash was a rhythm of 10-15-10 seconds apart. It would flash once then in 15 seconds it would flash again then in 10 seconds it would flash again, and so on. The flash was kinda like the newer LED bulbs that flash instant on and instant off, it seemed to be a bit slower of a transition to on and off, but it was certainly more of a flash and not a fade on to off. Now keep in mind, this thing was high up, we could not see any sort of craft structure with our naked eye, only the light bouncing off of it.

As for speed and trajectory, it seemed to go in a straight line, it also seemed to speed up and slow down slightly, as my friend was suggesting that the flashes were some sort of thruster. However I couldn't tell if it actually was changing speed, because of the time at night and just the natural tricks your brain plays on you. And to me the flashes looked like a light. The other point I would like to point out is, this object moved noticeably slower through the sky as the other regular satellite's we witnessed.

Then about 45 minutes later, a solid white light just moved across the sky at a moderate pace, it was big and bright, solid no flicker and no other strobe or colored lights. No sound what so ever, after seeing some airliners quite high earlier, higher than this appeared, and we could hear it's turbines off in the distance, but this, appearing to be significantly lower, could not hear a thing. The light did not fade at any angle, it came head on to us in the sky passed nearly over our heads and the light stayed constant until it was lost in the tree-line. Again, straight line, about little bit quicker than an airliner would move high up. So... have at it!

Man i love your profile picture
big smile on me face cheers

Satellites can be tumbling in orbit, this can produce a flashing effect as different parts of the satellite reflect sunlight.

The ISS made a pass over New Jersey at about 3:30, moving from the northwest to the east-southeast. It would have been very bright and passing nearly overhead.

In general, a satellite takes about 6 minutes to travel from horizon to horizon. But they are not always visible the whole time.

Have a look here:
www.heavens-above.com...

Originally posted by Phage
Satellites can be tumbling in orbit, this can produce a flashing effect as different parts of the satellite reflect sunlight.

I am not attempting to dispute what you say but can you explain why a satellite would tumble instead of being stable? Wouldn't that interfere with instrumental readings or data transmission?

Again, I'm just curious.

Awesome, it was the coolest thing I've ever seen

From what I recall, the majority of satellites look like dim stars that move steadily through the sky in a straight line with a solid color that does not flash or blink. There are some satellites that, due to their spinning in orbit, appear to blink somewhat erratically.

Now, I'm no astronomer, or satellite expert. I can just tell you what I see from the ground. Usually what I see in the sly that is definitely not a regular aircraft, I've seen objects in the sky that do exactly as stated above. I've seen some that travel the same way but change color. I've seen some blink very smoothly. I've seen some that don't blink at all but appear to be turning very slowly. I've seen some that fade in and fade out and others that just fly to the horizon. Hell, I've seen some that are as bright as the brightest stars. Usually I observ these things for anywhere between 10 seconds and 3 minutes (I time them). They are probably satellites or very high altitude military aircraft, but as they are so high up, they could be anything really, if you get my drift

Where are you located? What is the light and air pollution like?

The first one could have very well been the ISS or a satellite, but the second one we saw was extremely bright, compared to stars in the sky it was significantly brighter, as bright if not brighter than an aircraft (landing?) light.

But I have no idea how bright the ISS appears in the sky having never seen it before.

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver

There are a lot of dead satellites (including rocket boosters) in orbit.

reply to post by porschedrifter

The first one would not have been the ISS. It doesn't flash.
The ISS was extremely bright on this (early) morning's pass. If you were out at 3:30 and looking up you could not have missed it.

Satellites at night across the horizon, they move at constant speed, they do not twinkle as a light. Their speed as seen from the ground is similar to that of airplanes. Shooting starts rapidly burn in the atmosphere and again in a straight line (as seen from the ground). So I think there is nothing hard in distinguishing a satellite from some other object doing random moves.

reply to post by porschedrifter


Iridium sat blink on and off as you described. And the bright one was most likely iss. It is cool looking for objects. I have seen four in the span of 2 min which I found odd. Look up in the sky all the time and never have I seen that.I assume they wer all sats though

reply to post by porschedrifter


I seen a similar object to your second siting a couple of nights ago. It flew as high as the commercial jet liners and was way brighter than any star , it made no noise and zig zagged while going across the horizon . It went from one end to the other in maybe thirty seconds slowing and speeding up as it went along . Definitely not a plane or a satalite which I see all the time.

I saw the ISS at about 10:30PM last night, by accident, actually, in the western sky over Pittsburgh.

First time I have seen it. No flashes, just a solid reflection of white light.

reply to post by porschedrifter

The ISS will make an extra-bright (mag. -2.9) pass on a dark night/morning (just before New Moon) Sunday, June 10 (coordinates for Washington, D.C.) :

Event...__________... Time..___.. Altitude....Azimuth..._... Distance (km)
Rises above horizon....04:08:45......0°..........302° (WNW)....2,294
Reaches 10° altitude...04:10:53.....10°..........294° (WNW)...1,440
Maximum altitude........04:13:54.....38°..........224° (SW ).......622
Drops below 10° alt....04:16:56.....10°..........155° (SSE).....1,438
Sets..........................04:19:04.....-0°..........147° (SSE).....2,292

www.heavens-above.com...

You might want to compare what you saw before.