Satellite Identification?

Why couldn't it have been a plane?

The little green men waving out of the windows?

If it was moving pretty fast I'd guess it was a LEO (Low Earth Orbit). Try searching the web, all the 'legitimate' satellites should be listed somewhere...

Phil

Phil,
you could start by downloading this open source information held within The UCS Satellite Database but if you need more detailed information then I'm afraid I'd have to kill you after giving you another link.

Bob,

Concensus (maybe five or six people stared at it) was that it wasn't a plane 'cause one moving that fast and shining that bright would firstly have been audible and secondly would have had visible strobe and navigation lights. What we saw had neither and was silent.

Phil, yes, I suspect something in Low Earth Orbit and I wondered about the International Space Station but the info I can find about its orbit doesn't put it near enough. The Hubble, also in LEO, is also much too far away (I believe its orbit is equatorial). My knowledge stops after those two. I'm assuming there's no Shuttle flight up at the moment? Maybe it was Richard Branson?

Roy, will the UCS satellite database tell me where specific satellites are at a particular time and date?

Thanks all for your thoughts.
Phil

I often saw satellites when I lived in Cumbria and they are a beautiful sight as the little silver speck races across the heavens while so many other silver specks are seemingly stationary. Alas the light pollution in the Brighton area is too great for satellite spotting. I often wondered what satellite it might be and was told by a friend it was a weather satellite.

I doubt very much that the SR71 ever carried lights when operational and flew too high to be heard. I realise these are all now retired.

...but the blackbird does come out of retirement every so often. Last time was supposed to be for some of the gulf action. Was never official, but rumours persist.

The CIA used to have one available at short notice, but don't know if this has also been "actually" retired as opposed to operationally?

Officially they retired them in 1990, but they were re-activated in the mid-90's only to be retired again about 99

They never lost one to "hostile" action, but from what I remember they were "targeted" some 2500+ times. Standard procedure for a missle attack was more throttle and outrun the sucker.(an old work chum, was a pilot and huge fan, and I heard all about them quite often )

anybody care to fill in the detail, and correct my errors?

They don't want to give away too many secrets

quote:

The database includes basic information about more than 800 satellites and their orbits, but does not contain the detailed information necessary to locate individual satellites.

But none the less a reasonable source of information that will answer the who has what type of questions.

Heavans Above (will do up to 10 day predictions for: ISS & Envisat) while NASA offers more than enough to keep you busy on a cold & dark night.

Petersfield Hampshire 51.006 -0.938 72 m

"I wondered about the International Space Station but the info I can find about its orbit doesn't put it near enough."

Oh you can clearly see the ISS overhead (you can also listen to the radio downlink its unencrypted). Looks like a very bright moving star.

Could it be one of these mystery jobbies?

I was going to suggest it might be Aurora, but I know there are those who will deny it exists!

I have a mate who's a bit keen on the old Astronomy stuff. He once pointed out Mir Space Station one evening, while we were waiting for a firework display to start, after watching Ulverston's Lantern Parade, (note to tourist visitors, the parade is well worth seeing).

NASA has a tracking facility, available here.
http://science.nasa.gov/realtime/

Beano

Roy,

Yeah I had a look at Heavens Above but it will only do predictions - it won't look back, and I want to know what went over Petersfield at midnight last Sat.

Have to say it's interesting how quickly a question about satellites gets skewed into a discussion about secret military aircraft. It'll be conspiracy theories next and UFOs shortly after. Personally, I suspect that, as I was within a mile or so of the old Mordaunt-Short factory at Durford Mill for the first time in ages (and could see same in the distance), what I saw was the collected spirit of numerous old loudspeaker designs I never completed in the 80s. Or perhaps, for those with very long, sad memories, it was the last pair of MS 442s heading for a better place.

Phil (hang on, what's that just landed silently in the garden? Oh they want me to come with them......)

quote:

Originally posted by Phil Ward:


Phil (hang on, what's that just landed silently in the garden? Oh they want me to come with them......)

Phil,

If you go with them best take some lube with you

Beano,

Presumably, your mate, being keen on Astrology, would be able to tell me what I saw simply by knowing my date and place of birth? Can you ask him about the lottery numbers for Saturday too?

Phil

Beano,

You came up trumps with that NASA link. Looks like we saw the ISS. It would have been visible for about 5 mins at 11.28 and again at 01.03 at 41° elevation travelling from SW to E (which once I'd looked at a map seems about right).

Phil

PS. Erik, I sprayed the lube at one of them and "he" disolved. The rest ran away muttering something about "that soddding useless Guide". No idea what this fish is doing in my ear though.

He also likes Astronomy , along with a bit of pseudoscience thrown in which is a load of bollocks.


http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/r...ngdom®ion=England

Beano

Bob,
a load of Borealis or what?

quote:

...but the blackbird does come out of retirement every so often. Last time was supposed to be for some of the gulf action. Was never official, but rumours persist.

The CIA used to have one available at short notice, but don't know if this has also been "actually" retired as opposed to operationally?

Officially they retired them in 1990, but they were re-activated in the mid-90's only to be retired again about 99

They never lost one to "hostile" action, but from what I remember they were "targeted" some 2500+ times. Standard procedure for a missle attack was more throttle and outrun the sucker.(an old work chum, was a pilot and huge fan, and I heard all about them quite often )

anybody care to fill in the detail, and correct my errors?

I understand four SR-71's are still in flying condition and are used by NASA for "high altitude testing" . . .

No way it could have been an SR-71 though, they are coated in a matt black radar absorbing paint and you would never see it.

I've been fascinated by the SR-71 since I was a boy and have touched two of the 29 that were made. Never got to see one fly though

Oh God I'm an anorak!

Doug