Super fast satellite?

[atebitchip]

I'm so glad to finally find someone else perfectly describing what me and my family saw.

 

We saw 15 of these objects between 2014 and 2016.  They came 2 by 2 from horizon to horizon from the south heading north.  We would watch a pair fly by.  A few minutes after they vanished 2 more would come.  They all had roughly the same flight pattern.  The last group was 3.  This was in upstate New York.

 

The same summer I saw 2 more in Pennsylvania on different evenings.  One was moving West to east and the other east to west.

  It has always been in the back of my mind as to what these things were.  How can they move so fast and make no noise?  

 

Have you figured out what they are?

[wxsatuser]

Lets assume that you might be seeing satellites.

If you seen them again please post your location, nearest city or town will do.
Also note the time, this must be near exact as possible, not approximately.

Direction of travel will help plus if it suddenly fades out before it goes under the horizon.

[Genki]

On 01/08/2019 at 10:34, wxsatuser said:

Lets assume that you might be seeing satellites.

If you seen them again please post your location, nearest city or town will do.
Also note the time, this must be near exact as possible, not approximately.

Direction of travel will help plus if it suddenly fades out before it goes under the horizon.

Hi, thanks for the replies and interest.

I'm based in South East England by Tonbridge in Kent. The ISS passed approximately 10 / 15 minutes after the object we saw.

I also saw 3 fainter satellites that were travelling from a southerly to a northerly direction, these came after the ISS, there were a number of others on a similar path that followed after these and within the same hour.

Could the object be powered intermittently so maintaining a high speed at a lower orbit?

Apologies for the sketchy details.

 

LUDD,

The satellite / object  appeared to be a bright reflective light, but not blue / bluish, I believe it was at a lower orbit than the ISS.

My wife and I both thought we saw the object change direction, I assume this was an optical illusion.  

Regards

[wxsatuser]

13 hours ago, Genki said:

Hi, thanks for the replies and interest.

I'm based in South East England by Tonbridge in Kent. The ISS passed approximately 10 / 15 minutes after the object we saw.

I also saw 3 fainter satellites that were travelling from a southerly to a northerly direction, these came after the ISS, there were a number of others on a similar path that followed after these and within the same hour.

Could the object be powered intermittently so maintaining a high speed at a lower orbit?

Apologies for the sketchy details.

Your not to far from me in West Sussex.

Orbital mechanics don't allow for the speeding up unless we talk about Molniya orbits.

Molniya satellites have a maximum speed of 10km/sec at closest approach but this approach is normally
south of the equator. The ISS is moving at just under 8km/sec and if a satellite reaches just over 11km/sec it
will fly off into space.

[wxsatuser]

On 28/07/2019 at 12:22, SkyJamie said:

It sounds like i saw the same object as Genki and Ludd on Monday at around 10:35pm, very similar in appearance to the ISS but much faster.

It passed by Altair, because of its speed i thought maybe it was a plane but there was no sound, no flashing lights, it just looked like a satellite but travelling much faster than any i have seen before.

I think drones can be ruled out due to it being seen over such a wide area. Planes moving that fast would surely make an almighty roar, i didn't hear anything. It looked like reflected light, i agree, not like a light on a plane, and it faded as it moved into the distance.

Probably some kind of satellite/debris and maybe burnt up soon after these sightings? Although the repeated sightings by the starter of this thread might rule this out.

Its been cloudy here lately but i'll keep my eyes out next clear skies and try get some footage if it appears again.

 

 

I did'nt notice this before but your 10minutes earlier than Genki so this most likely not the same object.

As I said before, if anyone does see these again lets have the time spot on and your location as near as possible.
Then we can have a look and see if they correspond to known sats.

[SkyJamie]

Hey wxsatuser,

At this point is there any satellites that could be responsible for the sightings a few others and i saw on the monday night?

The timing might not be exact but around 10:30pm travelling East and passing Altair from Lincolnshire near Lincoln.

As i said in a previous post i'm going to try record it if i see it again.

 

[wxsatuser]

I don't see anything so far apart from Worldview-2 around 1035ish.
This is a big satellite, about 2.8 metric tons with rather large panels.

[SkyJamie]

Hey wxsatuser, thanks

I checked on Heavensabove but don't think WorldView-2 could be it , the direction of travel isn't the same as the object i saw was travelling from West to East and WorldView-2 is more North to South.

I'm hoping to do some meteor shower watching over the next few days so will try and be ready to record this object if it returns.

 

 

[StarryEyed]

On 13/07/2014 at 06:55, cotterless45 said:

Klingons.

Borg.

[StarryEyed]

I made this for you.

You can see there are plenty of satellites faster than the ISS.

Edited August 14, 2019 by StarryEyed

[John J]

I too saw this incredibly fast moving object while camping on the shore of lake Huron near the tip of the thumb of Michigan.   We enjoyed seeing the ISS earlier that night in June this year. Then an object, not a meteor,  not a plane, but obviously a satellite appeared in our field of view moving at least 4X the speed of the ISS moving NW to SE.  I too have been watching the skies for 40 years and know what I see. This was incredible and unexplainable.   At least 8 of us saw it and no one could explain it.  In my search for answers I found this forum.  Let's keep looking up and looking for answers.  

[StarryEyed]

8 hours ago, John J said:

....In my search for answers I found this forum.  Let's keep looking up and looking for answers. 

You won't find any here. No one really cares because it's difficult enough finding slow moving stars between clouds and the neighbourhood lights. Try YouTube lots of answered question on UFOs there.

[wxsatuser]

On 16/08/2019 at 01:43, John J said:

I too saw this incredibly fast moving object while camping on the shore of lake Huron near the tip of the thumb of Michigan.   We enjoyed seeing the ISS earlier that night in June this year. Then an object, not a meteor,  not a plane, but obviously a satellite appeared in our field of view moving at least 4X the speed of the ISS moving NW to SE.  I too have been watching the skies for 40 years and know what I see. This was incredible and unexplainable.   At least 8 of us saw it and no one could explain it.  In my search for answers I found this forum.  Let's keep looking up and looking for answers.  

There is no satellite that will have an apparent speed 4x the ISS, if it could reach that speed it would fly off into space.

Again, no time no date so we cannot verify the claim of a satellite.

[wxsatuser]

You won't find any here. No one really cares because it's difficult enough finding slow moving stars between clouds and the neighbourhood lights. Try YouTube lots of answered question on UFOs there.

I keep asking that any sightings are timed and dated accurately.

If people cannot do that how do we justify that the object is a satellite or whatever.

As far as I know no one on Youtube has ever proved UFO's exist, just lights in the sky.

Edited August 17, 2019 by wxsatuser

[Ludd]

Sorry not to be more specific than 10.45pm on 22 July 2019 CE and following the sort of W to E trajectory I would associate with the ISS. I rarely synchronise chronometers when enjoying a summer evening in the garden. 

[wxsatuser]

4 hours ago, Ludd said:

Sorry not to be more specific than 10.45pm on 22 July 2019 CE and following the sort of W to E trajectory I would associate with the ISS. I rarely synchronise chronometers when enjoying a summer evening in the garden. 

That's ok, fully understand, if we get the timings right at least we can rule out most satellites.

All the years I have spent outside at night I have never seen anything I cannot explain.
Apart from some high flying birds caught me out for a while one night. 😁

[StarryEyed]

On 17/08/2019 at 06:49, wxsatuser said:

 

As far as I know no one on Youtube has ever proved UFO's exist, just lights in the sky.

UFOs do exist your talking about one thats what lights in the sky are UFOs.

This is the problem with the subject a lack of detail, reference and concise narrative.

It's all Borg.

I track satellites and use radios to receive and communicate through them it's much more interesting than watching them.

Edited August 20, 2019 by StarryEyed

[wkarotten]

With reference to earlier, in this PDF some Pictures of the 'flying lights in the sky' taken from our central Utrecht roof terrace. Same PDF is sent to 'Sterrenwacht' and although so far emailing has always been swift and punctual, it has been 3 weeks now and have not heard of them, yet. Anyone any idea's what we are seeing here?

Lights in the sky_v4.pdf

[wxsatuser]

59 minutes ago, wkarotten said:

With reference to earlier, in this PDF some Pictures of the 'flying lights in the sky' taken from our central Utrecht roof terrace. Same PDF is sent to 'Sterrenwacht' and although so far emailing has always been swift and punctual, it has been 3 weeks now and have not heard of them, yet. Anyone any idea's what we are seeing here?

Lights in the sky_v4.pdf 3.73 MB · 0 downloads

Satellites.

There appear to be no strobes so not aircraft.

I see no direction of travel and no direction you were pointing.
This makes it hard to gather any more info on which satellites.

I suggest we need to know these two bits of info plus the exact time in UTC.

Satellites running in parallel are easier to find and not unusual to see these days.

[Ouroboros]

4 hours ago, wxsatuser said:

Satellites.

There appear to be no strobes so not aircraft.

I see no direction of travel and no direction you were pointing.
This makes it hard to gather any more info on which satellites.

I suggest we need to know these two bits of info plus the exact time in UTC.

Satellites running in parallel are easier to find and not unusual to see these days.

Yes, I agree, they look exactly like satellites. Difficult to say much else. A plate solve of the first image would reveal where the camera was pointing and which way the satellite was moving. The satellite's angular velocity can be estimated from the exposure time. The "morphed" start is probably camera shake. 

[wkarotten]

Satellites, well, that is what we thought too! But experts say it can't be satellites for several reasons, 1. On average those lights fly too fast (60 sec. from horizon to horizon and sometimes (much) faster), 2. the light they emit is emitted, not reflected,  3. Satellites are visible 1 hour after sunset and 1 hour before sunrise (all info by a professor in 'astral bodies') 4. One Sunday night in July we counted 27 'flying lights' between midnight and 4 AM, besides improbable statistics, at those hours satellites are simply not visible and certainly not as bright as those flying lights are, 5. What may probably be not clear from the pictures, is that not all 'flying lights' follow straight lines, some change direction, some change velocity, some switch its light on/off, some 'zigzag' to a hold, do a couple of 'slow but very bright blinks' and then fly on, or on-the-spot just fade into thin air in about 10 sec. and many variations of this totally weird behavioral...

In addition to the 'weird-factor', while sky-watching with the nightly temperatures declining, so does the amount of 'flying lights in the sky' with last night, clear and dark skies and freezing a bit, we hit the all-time low of 0 (zero) lights seen fly by. 

#wxsatuser, the local (Utrecht Netherlands) date and time are in the photo's, aren't they?

#ourobouros, thanks as well and what do you mean by 'A plate solve of the first image...'?

Hopefully and if, those flying lights return in reasonable amounts coming Spring / Summer You Stargazers Loungers will be the very First to Know!!
and of course are All very Welcome to come and See for Yourselves!! (I am very sure too, that I would never ever believe this, but every word is true and more...)

keep you updated!

Cheers!

WK

[wkarotten]

Well, no need to wait for Spring as the same night as previous message was posted here, it was All, but silent in the sky above our house!

We 'accidently'  caught these on video on december 30st, 

 

[carastro]

Most of them look like some flying creatures by the wiggly trajectory,  insects, fire flies, or something.  Not sure what you get in the Netherlands.

Carole 

[wkarotten]

Like mentioned earlier, it is very difficult to shoot pictures of those 'flying lights in the night sky', and hereby just one yet, that should be zoomed in 'to the max'.

Anyone seen anything like this fire fly flying by and like to share, cause we have no clue at all what we are looking at here...

Cheers!

willy

[wxsatuser]

So you are recording these lights with a dslr on a 90mm refractor.

Can you see these lights unaided?

The wiggly lights are most likely the wind moving the scope.

I see nothing on the video that proves anything as your imaging at 1000mm and no idea
if the scope is focused or where it's pointing, also no camera settings provided.

If you can see the lights unaided then the dslr should be able to pick them up with just a normal lense.

Edited January 23, 2020 by wxsatuser