Double satellites just now?

[jam1e1]

Hi anyone see the two objects move through plough, may have been satellites, distance between two was half dubhe to merak ie top two plough stars? Couldn't Id on skysafari? Location gatwick area time 9.00 to 9.01pm. They moved same direction and speed - strange site?! Direction was nne between top two stars plough mentioned above Cheers Jamie

[Ludd]

Yes, they were Noss 3-4 (A) and ©, launched by an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral back in 2007. They seemed really bright tonight - I've not seen them so bright before.

[Cloudwatcher]

Sounds like what you saw may have been a US Navy,Naval Ocean Surveillance System (NOSS) double satellite formation.

These are naked eye objects (given the right conditions) travelling in pairs.

OOPS.......beaten to the punch.

[jam1e1]

cheers they were odd sight never seen a pair like that in tamden - and I literally was out for 10secs checking sky and happened to notice by chance - meant to mention saw naked eye they were really bright - sharp/bright as dubhe

[Ludd]

I'd just been trying out a replacement motor on my GPDX mount and, to kill two birds with one stone, also trying out a crazy 3.2mm eyepiece on jupiter. I was just packing up when out of the corner of my eye I saw rather too many bright stars up at the western end of UMaj. You're right, they were as bright as the pointer stars. I checked my watch, and then looked on Heavens-Above to check what they were.

[Daniel-K]

yes we saw them last night very cool seeing them