Where to get info on satellite crossings or UFOs :)

Well this evening I stepped out onto my back porch for an after dinner drink and smoke and to look at the sky. I have a rather large backyard for Brooklyn NY. All the yards are very deep and with little to no lights unless someone happens to have one on outside their rear door.

Today was clear, crisp and very dry. I figured it would be a good night sky to kick back to and enjoy my after dinner drink and smoke. Being it's a new moon, I knew the sky would be decent for looking at stars - well at least good for here in the city. I was right. The sky is really clear, clear and dark as I've seen in in a while. So there's lots of stars visible.

About 8:02 I saw an object silently cross my visible field of the sky. It was very high. It did not have a strobe light or any apparent aircraft lights. No red lights and no blinking. Just a solid, but dim glow. Visually, it was the size of a star with the same brightness. It passed from SSE to NNW and at what seemed to be a very high altitude.

I'm pretty familiar with various commercial craft in so far as I've seen many, but can't identify them as to what type they are. My house is in line with an approach to Newark and I believe LaGuardia. I often sit in the yard day or night to watch jets come in at pretty low landing speeds and at probably less than 1000' in altitude. Maybe even less than that.

Well back to this object. As I said it had a very high altitude. It made no sound and given the altitude, it had to be going pretty fast. I was able to see it from about a 10 o'clock position to about 2 o'clock position from the horizon. Maybe even a bit wider angle than that. It took about 10 seconds to traverse that expanse of the sky.

Now I need help trying to identify what could have passed at that time, here in NYC on this date - 9/15/12 at 8:02pm. I'm pretty convinced in my mind, this was not a jet. Do satellites glow or reflect light?

No pics and they probably wouldn't help anyway. It was small in the sky and my iPhone wouldn't have done it any justice.

Thought I'd give my thread a bump. Does anyone know where I can find info on the path satellites take and the times they pass locations?

Originally posted by Bilk22
Thought I'd give my thread a bump. Does anyone know where I can find info on the path satellites take and the times they pass locations?

www.n2yo.com...


Hope it is of some use to you. Happy hunting

Space Weather will give you satellites.

This thread by Moderator Greeneyedleo also has lots of information on sky watching.

It's on the previous link, I think, but, please consider downloading and installing Stellarium for identification of objects in the night sky.

Further, if you have a smart phone, there's apps that allow you to point your phone at any place in the sky where your phone will then display what you're looking at. The following link contains several.
10 mobile Astronomy Apps

Well thanks both of you. Guess I'll have to search through all of it. One source had something passing by at 7:38. I'm certain what I saw passed at 8:02. I'm guessing satellites pass like clockwork though, so that wasn't it.

Originally posted by Druscilla
Space Weather will give you satellites.

This thread by Moderator Greeneyedleo also has lots of information on sky watching.

It's on the previous link, I think, but, please consider downloading and installing Stellarium for identification of objects in the night sky.

Further, if you have a smart phone, there's apps that allow you to point your phone at any place in the sky where your phone will then display what you're looking at. The following link contains several.
10 mobile Astronomy Apps

edit on 15-9-2012 by Druscilla because: (no reason given)

I have a few of those apps. This wasn't a stationary object. It went by pretty fast, as I described in my OP.

reply to post by Bilk22


In stellarium I think the plugin has to be turned on Im not sure. Iv hod mine on for so long I c ant remember If its set on in a install or not. But check the config to see if its on then set the longitude and latitude for your home then run it back to day and time to see. Thats all I can add.

Originally posted by Bilk22
Thought I'd give my thread a bump. Does anyone know where I can find info on the path satellites take and the times they pass locations?

Here a other one
heavens-above.com...

www11.jsc.nasa.gov...


www.n2yo.com...

Originally posted by ga-`tv-gi
reply to post by Bilk22

 

In stellarium I think the plugin has to be turned on Im not sure. Iv hod mine on for so long I c ant remember If its set on in a install or not. But check the config to see if its on then set the longitude and latitude for your home then run it back to day and time to see. Thats all I can add.

I have Skyorb and Night Sky. Guess I'll try Stellarium. Thanks.

One question I asked in the OP- do satellites glow or emit lights that would enable them to bee seen in the night sky? This thing was as bright as a dull star would appear. Nothing like aircraft lights that are visible on commercial craft.

Originally posted by Bilk22
I have Skyorb and Night Sky. Guess I'll try Stellarium. Thanks.

Stellarium by default won't show satellites. You also need the satellite plugin for that, which was mentioned before but I'm not sure how clear it was.

I have Stellarium with that plugin, but the satellite times are wrong. It's better to use www.heavens-above.com...

You can see a few satellites every night, if you know when and where to look. They are visible at night because they reflect sunlight. Sometimes you can see a satellite pass into the Earth's shadow, when the satellite gradually disappears. And sometimes they glint in the Sun very brightly. en.wikipedia.org...

I envy you for your location, dark skies is a rare thing these days.

P.S. did the satellite pass almost overhead, or close to the horizon? If it was overhead, it was probably this one:
www.heavens-above.com...

There were more satellites visible around that time, but this one was the brightest.

Originally posted by wildespace
I have Stellarium with that plugin, but the satellite times are wrong. It's better to use www.heavens-above.com...

You can see a few satellites every night, if you know when and where to look. They are visible at night because they reflect sunlight. Sometimes you can see a satellite pass into the Earth's shadow, when the satellite gradually disappears. And sometimes they glint in the Sun very brightly. en.wikipedia.org...

I envy you for your location, dark skies is a rare thing these days.

P.S. did the satellite pass almost overhead, or close to the horizon? If it was overhead, it was probably this one:
www.heavens-above.com...

There were more satellites visible around that time, but this one was the brightest.

edit on 16-9-2012 by wildespace because: (no reason given)

Hey thanks. Yes it did pass directly overhead at 8:02. So this satellite has a high enough altitude to capture and reflect sun light at an elevation of approximately 550 miles? I guess if it were later that wouldn't be the case?

reply to post by Bilk22


Information on high flying aircraft going over an area of airports sounds like a
military center needs to be contacted. Why fly over airports if not to land
or meaning its not landing and on a routine military or test flight.
Ten seconds seems fast for a high flying aircraft. A satellite might take a long
time but I'm not into low level satellite transverse times.

Hi I use an iPhone and have a app called ProSat you can select all sorts of satellites to follow in including the ISS, for most commercial flights I have an app called flightradar24. Also using a star map app it helps with all these to cross out things you may see that could be logical explanations for strange lights in the sky. Hope this helps

Originally posted by Bilk22

Originally posted by wildespace
I have Stellarium with that plugin, but the satellite times are wrong. It's better to use www.heavens-above.com...

You can see a few satellites every night, if you know when and where to look. They are visible at night because they reflect sunlight. Sometimes you can see a satellite pass into the Earth's shadow, when the satellite gradually disappears. And sometimes they glint in the Sun very brightly. en.wikipedia.org...

I envy you for your location, dark skies is a rare thing these days.

P.S. did the satellite pass almost overhead, or close to the horizon? If it was overhead, it was probably this one:
www.heavens-above.com...

There were more satellites visible around that time, but this one was the brightest.

edit on 16-9-2012 by wildespace because: (no reason given)

Hey thanks. Yes it did pass directly overhead at 8:02. So this satellite has a high enough altitude to capture and reflect sun light at an elevation of approximately 550 miles? I guess if it were later that wouldn't be the case?

Yes, low earth orbit satellites can't be seen late at night because they no longer have line of sight to the sun. High altitude satellites like geostationary satellites can generally be seen all night (with a telescope) except for a short period during eclipse season.