Moveing black dot on moon?

[Tess]

Last night 13th june 2011 at 21:40 i saw a black dot travel across the moon ... i had the whole moon in the telescope len and the dot travelled from left to right just above the middle....now this dot must have been very large object for me to even be able to see it , it moved across very steady .....

The moveing dot wasnt a bird plane or dust on my len! but could it have been a satalite or a rock?

Does anyone know what it could have been or even better saw it?

Thanku

[barkis]

Not sure anything that the shadow of anything in lunar orbit would be visible on the surface. An earth satellite would be sunlit itself, and wouldn't be visible against the bright lunar disc I would think.

An asteroid passing between earth and moon would be moving at a rate of knots, and again would be sunlit, but could cast a shadow. A lot would depend on the relative distances.

Are you sure a tiny mite wasn't traversing the field lens of your eyepiece?

Ron.

[Greg]

An asteroid passing between earth and moon would be moving at a rate of knots, and again would be sunlit.

Inputting your location into Calsky comes up with these sattelites..

21h41m42s ARGOS

(25634 1999-008-A)

→Ground track →Star chart Appears 21h34m22s 6.6mag az:191.4° SSW horizon

Culmination 21h41m42s 5.6mag az:264.7° W h:32.5°

distance: 1369.9km height above Earth: 828.9km elevation of Sun: -9° angular velocity: 0.31°/s

Disappears 21h49m07s 10.7mag az:338.2° NNW horizon

21h42m12s Cosmos 2082 Rocket

(20625 1990-046-

→Ground track →Star chart Appears 21h34m01s 10.4mag az:331.0° NNW horizon

Culmination 21h42m12s 3.1mag az: 58.1° ENE h:69.6°

distance: 900.0km height above Earth: 850.6km elevation of Sun: -9° angular velocity: 0.46°/s

Disappears 21h47m30s 4.6mag az:141.6° SE h:11.7°

21h42m58s 11015C

(37389 2011-015-C)

→Ground track →Star chart Appears 21h37m34s 7.7mag az:157.2° SSE h:9.7°

Culmination 21h42m58s 5.9mag az: 72.1° ENE h:78.0°

distance: 835.9km height above Earth: 819.6km elevation of Sun: -9° angular velocity: 0.52°/s

Disappears 21h50m37s 12.0mag az:346.4° NNW horizon

[Tess]

im so sure its not a bug or mite as that would be huge on the len, and not an eye floater lol, could the dot have been a asteroid? or shadow from one?

[Helen]

It might have been the Space Station, someone posted last night that it was crossing the moon for their location. If you go to calcsky.com and input your location then look at the ISS section you'll be able to change the date to yesterday and check. It needs an exact location as even a small change of position changes whether you'll see a transit of the moon or just a close fly-by.

Helen

[Astrokev]

Almost certainly a satellite transit of some sort.

[Astrokev]

An earth satellite would be sunlit itself, and wouldn't be visible against the bright lunar disc I would think.

Ron.

Incorrect I think. Whether sunlit or not, a transiting satellite would be visible as a silhouette due to the large difference in apparent magnitude (otherwise, we wouldn't be able to see ISS solar transits!)

[Tess]

Cool thanku for repiles so it does sound like a satelite , i did try to work out the website link for a space station but i cant really i understand it all ... Do satelites go round the moon or is it just a shadow made by one that goes round the earth and between the earth and moon so we can see them?

[Helen]

The satellites go round the earth and sometimes pass in front of the sun/moon planets etc. Some of the satellite sites only show 'visible' passes ie where the is illuminated, but the calcsky site also allows you to check for 'transits' where even though the satellite isn't illuminated you'll be able to see it in silhouette against on the moon/sun.

Helen

[Tess]

Thank u Helen , Astrokev, Barkis and Greg ... thats what i must have seen.

[spaceboy]

Of course there is also a slight possibility you have a spider in your OTA traveling along it's web. Due to the focal plane you wouldn't be able to distinguish any real detail only what would seem like a shadow at infinity.

Just a thought.

SPACEBOY

[Josh Lyons]

Yes, it may have been the ISS, although that is generally seen as a long thing strip of light and doesn't move that fast. Well, not when I see it, it doesn't! Maybe you saw an alien space ship? Haha, most probably what everybody else said though. I won't repeat you've heard it enough!

Happy gazing!

-Josh

[Dave]

The ISS would take far too short a time (less than a second) to transit the Moon.

Could it have been an airplane a long way off?

[lukebl]

I'm not convinced that it's a satellite. The ISS takes just a second or so to cross the disk of the moon, and most other satellites are generally only a few arc-seconds across, or even smaller, so you could barely see them even with great optics. I'd say it was some sort of artefact in the optics, which appeared to move across the moon, when in fact it was a result of the moon drifting across the field of view and making the object appear to move.

[Tim]

I would say a bird etc out of focus, anything too far away and you would soon start to lose the ability to resolve it, especially if you had the whole of the moon in view.

[sandspider]

I reckon the Chinese are already mining the moon You just saw the equipment moving about.

[JB80]

I had something like this, http://stargazerslounge.com/imaging-lunar/155054-transit-sorts-maybe.html

At a popular US forum they are convinced it's a weather balloon.

[bibbsy]

this is what i have seen,maybe this is what you have seen too,think its a satellite.

[faulksy]

maybe e.t. on his new bike lol

[MjrTom]

I saw a pair of what I assume were helium balloons transit the lunar surface last night.

Completely surprised me and took me a moment to realise what it was!

[JimStan]

I have distinctly observed birds flying across the surface of the moon as viewed through my scope. It is not all that uncommon. Ya gotta wonder what they are doing up there at that time of the night ! No, I am NOT crazy. It has been verified by other individuals in my club !

Jim S.

[todd8137]

i have over 124 gig of video and i have loads of birds planes sats bugs ect never seen a ufo in 3 yeaars of looking

[onesmallstep]

My best guess would be a satellite silhouetted against the moon. You could check times / locations on Heavens-Above.