Satellites or shooting stars

[misty moon]

On Saturday night just gone was a great night here in the northwest England after looking at Jupiter and her moons l was just searching the night sky as it was clear and no moon when I spotted a moving object so I was able to keep up with it moving my scope when it went out of view then l went back looking at different stars when 2 more objects appeared tracking the same path side by side never seen anything like this before ? Searched the computer to find any satellite flight paths out joy as anyone ever seen this before

[DRT]

I've never seen a shooting star move slow enough to track. I have seen the ISS with a companion when the supply craft is visiting (every 6 weeks I think) so it isn't unusual to see two satellite objects moving along together.

Could it have been aircraft at very high altitude?

[tingting44]

indeed the supply craft was docking up with the ISS on saturday night and plenty of people saw it , might have been this

[RichM63]

Welcome aboard from an ex Rochdalian.

Shooting stars would have been too fast to track, although there is a shower called the Lyrid shower that may be visible radiating from Hercules/Lyra from 16-25 April. About 18.00 UT.

Stellarium can show you satellite tracks.

From my location I have recently been seeing what must be goverment air traffic with a 747 in tandem with a smaller jet obviously travelling as a pair.

[WaveSoarer]

It sounds like you managed to see a couple of satellites. I've been out with my scope for a couple of nights over the Easter weekend and I'm just amazed how many there are scooting around. Even with the narrow field of view offered by the telescope it's astonishing how often you'll see one zip through. I was imaging on both nights and about three of the subs (120 seconds each) have the trails of satellites through them. Although I've never seen this myself, there are cases when people have been viewing planets where they've had geostationary satellites  in the field of view. They appear as faint points of light and they move very slowly relative to the planet. There was a report on SGL that mentioned this when someone was viewing Saturn. They initially thought it was one of the moons, although it seemed to be moving rather too fast for this to be the case. Shooting stars are very fleeting and they've usually done their thing before you realise you've spotted one. If you catch one in the corner of your eye then it's usually extinguished before you get a chance to look straight at it. I've once or twice seen fairly large meteors, that have lasted for a couple of seconds leaving a glowing trail - these are few and far between though.

[glowjet]

Hi Misty moon and welcome to SGL, as mentioned, the most likely explanation to what you observed would be satellites. Have a look at the freely available program "Heaven's Above" this can give you the predicted movements for your location, of satellites, Iridium flare paths, the ISS and other interesting information  

[ronl]

Hi and welcome to the lounge,

there are so many satellites up there, but the ISS is very bright,

I usually give them a wave when it passes over.

Good Luck and Clear Sky's

[purdo]

Hi & Welcome to SGL. I saw two satellites on Saturday night as well. They were near the The Plough in Ursa Major. Saw them then  tried to find them with the binoculars but that didn't work, so back to the  naked eye so to speak.

[Myopicus]

Hello! Welcome. 

In the words of Billy Bragg 

"I saw two shooting stars last night, 

I wished on them 

but they were only satellites;

It's wrong to wish on space hardware, 

I wish, I wish, I wish you cared . . ."

[Bizibilder]

Hello Misty Moon and welcome to SGL!!

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedforshire

[todd8137]

Hi and welcome to Sgl,and welcome from me

Pat

[Umbraldot]

Welcome to SGL

[r3i]

Welcome to the forum.  It's quite possible that you saw the ISS and the Space-X Dragon supply vessel - the Dragon arrived at the station on Sunday.

[HIP3802]

Hi, misty moon, and a warm welcome to SGL!

[sologuitarist61]

Hello and a warm welcome to SGL

[Charon]

Welcome aboard.