Amateur astronomy question:

[Fox Mulder]

I was just taking my dog outside, and I looked up towards the direction of Scorpious, and there was this point of light that looked like a dim star (probably magnitude 3 or 4) and it was moving across the sky at about a 1/2 degree every three seconds or so. It arced across the whole sky. What was it? Satellite? Meteor? High altitude spacecraft? There were three of them in different parts of the sky.

They kinda creeped me out! :scared:

[Mutley]

1. Probably satellites.

You can often see several of them in the sky, and they can look a bit fishy. :P

[Fox Mulder]

2. Yeah, but they don't usually move that fast, do they?

At least the ones I have seen never moved that fast. :shrug:

[Mutley]

9. The lower altitude satellites can appear to be moving pretty fast.

Nearly as fast as a commercial jet at 30,000 ft.

[pitohui]

11. mutley has it right EOM

just came to post same

[Fox Mulder]

12. Ahhh...okay.

Makes sense.

[Mutley]

14. I'd love to see a UFO, too.

:hug: :P

[Fox Mulder]

16. I want to camp out in the deserts of Nevada/New Mexico.

Imagine what you would see in those skies.

*cue creepy scifi music*

[Mutley]

18. If the satellite makes a sudden left turn, you might have something

to worry about. :D

[Fox Mulder]

19. I was thinking that when I was outside tonight.

:D

[RevolutionaryActs]

3. When you got home, did you realize it was 3 hours later than

you thought it was? :tinfoilhat:

[Fox Mulder]

4. I was already at home.

I was out in the yard. :)

But I did lose 20 minutes there and I have a great pain in my posterior...

:tinfoilhat: :scared: :silly:

[RevolutionaryActs]

5. You should be find then.

If you had lost 3 hours then I would be worried. :silly:

[XemaSab]

6. The grays are not known for stamina

[Fox Mulder]

7. I take it no one knows what it was?

[pitohui]

8. sounds like a satellite breaking up

i once witnessed this, years ago, way more than 3 pieces, and i have to admit i kinda freaked out and froze on the beach and was afraid to move for a few minutes

i'll never forget it

in my case it was a soviet satellite, i'm sorry i'm not up on the satellites any more but there is prob. a way to look it up

[Fox Mulder]

10. Hmmm...

could've been.

But the pieces would only flare up for a few seconds, right? These lasted for a couple of minutes each.

[pitohui]

13. several of the pieces i saw took at least a couple minutes

it seemed like an eternity really

oh god some of them went across the whole sky

now some pieces did fall out and just burn out immediately, but at first i saw the really bright pieces that had not dropped out of orbit and just kept on going across the sky

and for the love of jesus it looked like multiple alien spacecraft tracking very low across the sky in formation!

i was freckin terrified i'll tell you that!

be pretty much alone on a barrier island and see something like that, oh god, my blood ran cold

i was later told it was one of the soviet satellites that used to go in a polar orbit and it was VERY low, lower than it seemed, i was in grand isle and supposedly even new orleans didn't see it

[Fox Mulder]

15. I can imagine.

I was hoping it'd be some sort of spacecraft ready to take me away from this place.

That would've been sweet.

Then I'd know for sure if aliens exist or not.

[pitohui]

17. i have an irrational fear of our space brothers

i'm sorry to say so but i used to be good friends with a ufo researcher who worked w. hynek and i had every opportunity to go to some of the places where you're pretty much guaranteed to see a ufo if you go often enough -- and i just couldn't do it

years i spent reading and then making these contacts

and i couldn't do it

i'll never understand that part of my life

[pokerfan]

20. probably a satellite

A degree from your position isn't the same as a degree from the center of the earth

From the earth-center point of view, it takes a low earth orbit satellite 90 minutes to circle the earth (360 degrees), it will appear much faster from the surface, especially passing directly overhead (zenith).

Assume 4000 miles for the radius of the earth and 125 miles for the lowest, i.e. fastest satellite and I come up with about 2 degrees per second. Someone with a alt-az motor scope can probably verfiy this number for us. I'm strictly a dobsonian man.

[gkdmaths]

21. at ~17,000 mph,

an LEO can transit horizon to horizon in just a few seconds.

If you get hooked on spotting them, you'll definately become an "irridium flare" seeker. Sometimes, you can see brilliantly bright light glint off of satellite's solar panels. Usually just after sunrise. There are competitions, and it is the epitome of geekery.

There is significant math behind predicting the flares, and Im not sure how accurate it is. There's also a "green streak" phenomenon that is a product of the refractive index of the atmosphere. Some folks (usually die-hard astronomers/physicists) will travel their whole life looking for it. I had a physics professor who said hea saw it one morning on mauna loa.

the best satellite tracking software (IMHO) is STSPLUS by Dr. Ransom. you can load any public satellite's TLE and track it, even the ISS and space shuttle (when in orbit, of course)

http://www.dransom.com/stsplus.html (not for XP)

[pitohui]

22. predicting the flares -- it's pretty accurate

my husband sometimes goes to an iridium flare site to get sighting times and we've seen a few, as you say, it's surprising how quickly they are done, dramatic tho, they might be off a little, but we do see them at APPROXIMATELY time and place stated



however, because of OP's description, a min. of 3 items, slow transit time across the horizon etc. i am still voting with some old satellite broke up into pieces in low orbit and that's what he saw

just a guess tho of course

[gkdmaths]

23. Could be

More likely, however, is a meteor. I've seen some enter nearly parallel to my line of sight and the whole while it appeared as a green glow that remaind stationary until its velocity had slowed enough for gravity to make its path more parabolic, moving it more vertically with respect to it's horizontal travel.

Nice to know that the flare prediction is that accurate. Ive never actually taken the time to look! I'll do it now. thanks.

[pitohui]

24. check it out, it's a kick!

our neighbors think we're pretty odd but now they know if we're standing around staring at the sky, there is something abt to happen :-) look for the iridium satellites you won't be disappointed

agreed if that if OP had not mentioned seeing 3 items i would have voted for he saw a meteor

of course meteors do come in clusters so i wouldn't write it off entirely as a possible

[pokerfan]

25. heavens-above,com is a great site

http://www.heavens-above.com/main.asp?lat=52.28&lng=7.97&loc=Osnabrueck&TZ=CET

Before heading to our club's dark site for a night of observing, I always check for satellites (flares, ISS, etc.).