I saw two shooting stars last night...but they were only satellites

[Hanuman]

So sang Billy Bragg is New England.

Three time now I've seen what I'm pretty sure are satellites cross my field of view when down at the eyepiece (25mm). It happened twice last night and because it's unexpected I must admit it makes me jump a bit. Pulling back from the eyepiece and looking with the naked eye doesn't show them so they must just be faint.

But, last night I am wondering if that's what I saw. It may be some twisted logic on my part but let me explain.

It happened twice last night whilst I was in Ursa Major, near Dubhe, trying (and failing) to star hop across to M81/M82. It was around midnight and both were within about 10 min of each other and travelling at similar speed but in different directions. Same faint uncoloured point of light.

Now my thinking is that if it was around midnight then the sun is pretty much the other side of the earth from me. Any satellite passing overhead so high in the sky to me should be in the Earth's shadow right? That's why I'm questioning myself here.

They could have been meteors. The Lyrids are due about now aren't they, but the fact they were in different directions and they were colourless and moving at that constant speed that looks satellite-ey tells me different.

I may be over thinking this, but should I be able to see satellites that high in the sky around midnight?

[sologuitarist61]

Very strange - as you say, if they were meteors from the same shower then they would have similar trajectories, but I guess it could just be coincidence

[jflowers]

Sound like satellites to me, they should be just about visible directly overhead. Have you added satellites to Stelarium and had a look around that time? If you click on any sort of satellite in that area around the time you were viewing, it will say whether or not it will be eclipsed.

Jon

[littlebeagle]

Probably satellites, I didn't realise till I took up astronomy quite how many were visible.

[astro_john_palmer]

That does seem a very busy area of the sky for satellites, too. If I spend much time looking in that direction in a night, I am more surprised if I DON'T see a satellite at some point!

A meteor would also be travelling much faster across the FoV. Satelite is travelling at fastest around 17,500 mph (ISS for example), the higher and lighter they are the slower they travel. A meteor from the Lyrids is more like 100,000-110,000 mph! Wouldn't hang around in your FoV for very long!

[Gomtuu]

It's wrong to wish on space hardware!!