help me identify objects seen last night?
mywoo...@gmail.com
Canada, (northeastern NA).
At 9:03PM we saw the ISS passing by, directly overheard heading East/
SE. Around 9:04 another object followed, and around 9:05 yet another
one, all in similar trajectories. These two were much dimmer.
The Space Shuttle was supposed to come before the ISS, we never saw it
as we were likely looking too low in the sky. Soyuz was supposed to go
by at 9:19, so it was not it. What were the mistery objects around
9:04 and 9:05PM?
Thanks!
flyguy
You didn't give the date of your sitings. If it was on the evening of
Friday March-27, one of the other objects could have been the ISS tool
bag which was accidentally lost by an astronaut doing an EVA on a
previous Shuttle mission last fall. This 'satellite' is currently
trailing the ISS by about 5-minutes. It's brightness is close to the
limit of vision with the unaided eye (no binoculars) but you could have
seen it if the sky was very clear and dark. I'm not sure about the
second object. It may have been the Russian 'Progress' cargo spacecraft
which was launched to the ISS in February. It might still be in a
similar orbit to the ISS. If you give us some more details, it would
help to identify your UFO's.
BTW, There actually wasn't any pass of the ISS *directly* over Ottawa
last week. The highest one was on Friday evening March-27, which reached
a maximum altitude of 69-deg above the North-Northeast horizon at
9:05pm-EDT. That's why I chose that pass in answering your post. How
sure are you about the times of these sitings?
Patty Winter
In article <NvVAl.1117$6n....@nwrddc01.gnilink.net>,
Yes, s/he did. The posting was made the afternoon of Saturday,
March 28th, and referred to "last night." So the sightings were
on Friday, March 27.
>If it was on the evening of
>Friday March-27, one of the other objects could have been the ISS tool
>bag which was accidentally lost by an astronaut doing an EVA on a
>previous Shuttle mission last fall. This 'satellite' is currently
>trailing the ISS by about 5-minutes. It's brightness is close to the
>limit of vision with the unaided eye (no binoculars) but you could have
>seen it if the sky was very clear and dark.
I wondered about that, too, but figured it was too faint to be seen
anywhere near a city. Of course, one doesn't have to go far from Ottawa
to be in the country, so "mywoodroffe" could have quite dark skies.
(BTW, I had a great time in Ottawa and visiting the Diefenbunker last
summer. The latter is only about half an hour from Parliament Hill
but is in a very rural area.)
>BTW, There actually wasn't any pass of the ISS *directly* over Ottawa
>last week. The highest one was on Friday evening March-27, which reached
>a maximum altitude of 69-deg above the North-Northeast horizon at
>9:05pm-EDT.
Yeah, 69 deg. could easily look "overhead" to someone not experienced
with gauging the elevations of astronomical objects.
Patty
flyguy
> In article <NvVAl.1117$6n....@nwrddc01.gnilink.net>,
I figured March-27 was the most likely date of the sitings but I don't
have much confidence in Usenet posting dates, so I just wanted to be
sure I wasn't wasting my time searching the wrong date.
I too have very dark skies within a half hours drive from home so I
should make an effort to see the tool bag. It should be fairly easy to
locate with the ISS ahead of it by a few minutes. I tried to see
'Suitsat' with no success. That's got to be the weirdest 'satellite' in
the history of man made earth orbiting objects. What was the first
identifiable satellite you ever saw? For me it was Echo-1A in the autumn
of 1960. I was about 9-years old so that event started my life long
interest in observing satellites.
BTW, Have you seen Hubble? I'm pretty sure I've seen it at least once.
It would be pretty low on the southern horizon for an observer in
southern Quebec or Ontario. It never gets higher than about 12-deg for
me. Hopefully it will be easier to observe when the Shuttle goes to it
this year.
Patty Winter
In article <di%Al.1070$Q52...@nwrddc02.gnilink.net>,
flyguy <fly...@bluesky.net> wrote:
[older text deleted]
>I too have very dark skies within a half hours drive from home so I
>should make an effort to see the tool bag. It should be fairly easy to
>locate with the ISS ahead of it by a few minutes.
Let us know if you succeed! I haven't tried yet. I'm not sure it
would be possible at my house even with binoculars. Maybe next time
I visit my friends in the Gold Country.
>I tried to see
>'Suitsat' with no success. That's got to be the weirdest 'satellite' in
>the history of man made earth orbiting objects.
Well, that and the tool bag. :-) Also, did you ever see the tethered
satellite that broke free from the shuttle in 1996? The tether was
about 12 miles long, making for a very strange sight moving across
the sky:
http://www.satobs.org/tss.html
Be sure to watch the video.
>What was the first
>identifiable satellite you ever saw? For me it was Echo-1A in the autumn
>of 1960.
I, too, saw Echo I. I don't recall whether I saw anything before that.
>BTW, Have you seen Hubble? I'm pretty sure I've seen it at least once.
Yeah, a few times. Haven't tried recently.
Patty
flyguy
> In article <di%Al.1070$Q52...@nwrddc02.gnilink.net>,
> flyguy <fly...@bluesky.net> wrote:
>
> [older text deleted]
>
>
>>I too have very dark skies within a half hours drive from home so I
>>should make an effort to see the tool bag. It should be fairly easy to
>>locate with the ISS ahead of it by a few minutes.
>
>
> Let us know if you succeed! I haven't tried yet. I'm not sure it
> would be possible at my house even with binoculars. Maybe next time
> I visit my friends in the Gold Country.
I just checked the ISS schedule and wouldn't you know it there won't be
any visible passes of the ISS in my area for almost three weeks. After
that all the passes will be in the morning for another two weeks or so
until it finally gets back into the evening sky. I guess I'll have to
stay up late some night near the end of this month. I'm not going to
bother with any passes that aren't close to the zenith. I figure it
would be hard enough to see when it's directly overhead.
>
>
>>I tried to see
>>'Suitsat' with no success. That's got to be the weirdest 'satellite' in
>>the history of man made earth orbiting objects.
>
>
> Well, that and the tool bag. :-) Also, did you ever see the tethered
> satellite that broke free from the shuttle in 1996? The tether was
> about 12 miles long, making for a very strange sight moving across
> the sky:
>
> http://www.satobs.org/tss.html
>
> Be sure to watch the video.
I remember seeing the video taken from the Shuttle when the tether broke
but it never occurred to me that it might be visible from the ground.
That would have been really neat to see.
I have seen the ISS and the Shuttle when they were very close to each
other, like a degree or so. But that still works out to about 20-miles.
I would like to see them when they are so close it would require
binoculars to seperate them. The Shuttle program will probably be over
before I might have the opportunity for that. About a year ago I saw the
Shuttle on the first orbit after it was launched. I was surprised by how
fast it was moving. That was because they were still in a low parking
orbit before boosting to the altitude of the ISS.
>
>
>>What was the first
>>identifiable satellite you ever saw? For me it was Echo-1A in the autumn
>>of 1960.
>
>
> I, too, saw Echo I. I don't recall whether I saw anything before that.
>
>
>>BTW, Have you seen Hubble? I'm pretty sure I've seen it at least once.
>
>
> Yeah, a few times. Haven't tried recently.
The next window for Hubble is coming up at the end of the month. There
will be a single pass on three consecutive evenings in my area. Maybe
the Shuttle will be at the Hubble then. That would make it much easier
to find it.
Bye