steph
Well-known member
Maybe this belongs in Brighton Lounge, I don't know.
I'm trying to get a clearer idea of what I saw this night. It was about 19:40 UTC, give or take a few minutes, when I saw something that looked like a rather faint pass of the ISS (I'd eyeball the magnitude at about 0 or -1 at most), but moving a lot faster, linearly from west to east. From the looks of it, I'm quite sure it was a satellite, or maybe some sort of plane. It had the same "point of light" look as the ISS, no blinking and with no distinguishable features, but moving much faster even than an aircraft would. Let's not say in 10 seconds, but in 20 seconds it had gone from basically overhead to fading towards the eastern horizon.
I've looked on heavens-above.com, but I can't seem to find any suitable pass. An Iridium Flare is listed at approximately the same time, but it was going North-South and it would have moved too slow for it to be what I've seen.
The way it faded as it went east makes me think it was something airbourne/ in orbit. It faded a bit smoother than the way ISS does when it goes into Earth's shadow, but then again, the sun hadn't set that much time ago, light might still have been shining on it.
So..something that looks like a satellit, but goes much faster....Maybe a lower orbit? Perhaps a high eccentricity orbit, maybe Molnyia? I was also thinking it might have been something that started reentering, though there was no ionization trail.
The viewing location was Cluj, Romania. I would've taken pictures or filmed it, but my phone camera is way too crappy to see it, and the street lights would've made it worse. To give an idea about the magnitude, I had to block a streetlight from view with my hand in order to see the thing clearly.
I'm trying to get a clearer idea of what I saw this night. It was about 19:40 UTC, give or take a few minutes, when I saw something that looked like a rather faint pass of the ISS (I'd eyeball the magnitude at about 0 or -1 at most), but moving a lot faster, linearly from west to east. From the looks of it, I'm quite sure it was a satellite, or maybe some sort of plane. It had the same "point of light" look as the ISS, no blinking and with no distinguishable features, but moving much faster even than an aircraft would. Let's not say in 10 seconds, but in 20 seconds it had gone from basically overhead to fading towards the eastern horizon.
I've looked on heavens-above.com, but I can't seem to find any suitable pass. An Iridium Flare is listed at approximately the same time, but it was going North-South and it would have moved too slow for it to be what I've seen.
The way it faded as it went east makes me think it was something airbourne/ in orbit. It faded a bit smoother than the way ISS does when it goes into Earth's shadow, but then again, the sun hadn't set that much time ago, light might still have been shining on it.
So..something that looks like a satellit, but goes much faster....Maybe a lower orbit? Perhaps a high eccentricity orbit, maybe Molnyia? I was also thinking it might have been something that started reentering, though there was no ionization trail.
The viewing location was Cluj, Romania. I would've taken pictures or filmed it, but my phone camera is way too crappy to see it, and the street lights would've made it worse. To give an idea about the magnitude, I had to block a streetlight from view with my hand in order to see the thing clearly.
