Slow Moving Object

[timtrice]

Last night while observing (if I recall correctly) NGC 6531 I caught a relatively bright object moving rather slowly across my FOV from left to right. I say slowly as in it wasn't as fast as even a slow meteor although it seemed a bit quicker than a normal satellite. In addition, the object also contained a slightly reddish tint. I esimated it roughly to be around magnitude 6 or perhaps 7. This was around 10:30 or 11. I did record the observation but I do not have it one me right now for dteails.

My best guess is that it was a very high altitude object (already 1 to 1 1/2 hours of astronomical twilight), either an operable satellite or space junk. I do know that it was in fact a pleasant surprise and a reminder why I enjoy doing this so much.

[Bart]

I like seeing objects glide across the FOV while observing. Others don't, especially imagers!

There is a lot of stuff up there because it happens frequently.

Barry

[timtrice]

Yea I'd love to do imaging for that for meteors, asteroids and what-not but I see the other point also. My GF saw a faint meteor streak across the FOV couple nights ago. She's new to this so she was extremely excited.

[starman1969]

I find satellites can really make me jump when I see one through a scope. It's probably because they appear to travel much faster when viewed at high mag. That's happened to me a few times

[Kropster]

Amazing how often a faint satellite/piece of debris moves across the fov when looking through the scope.

Makes you realise how much stuff is up there.

[Vega]

Yeah, happened to me on a few occasions. The best one's are planes streaking through your eyepeice! Especially through a reflector when they are inverted ! :-) If you know the time, date and rough location, look on Heavensabove.com you might be able to track down what satellite it was

[nameunknown]

...one of those Chinese lantern balloon things? Probably not, they don't fly that high

P