Wonder what it was

[JRM]

Hey All,

   was just outside having a smoke and happened to spot an object sail by Jupiter, it was about 8:37 atlantic time, 7:37 eastern.

thought it was a satellite but it does not show up on my starry night pro program, was not dark out side but object was easy enough to see

with unaided eye, way to fast for a plane too,got me curious now, maybe will will hear a report in a few days about an unknown asteroid flyby, who knows.

Rick

 

[SilverAstro]

39 minutes ago, JRM said:

thought it was a satellite but it does not show up on my starry night pro program,

I dont know starry night pro nor how it gathers/ updates? its data so it could be an un-documented (military etc) sat.

Some time ago these sensitive sats were deleted from the usual feeds of Kepler elements needed to keep software up to date. You could check out HeavensAbove http://www.heavens-above.com/

I am not sure about their latest status re. these 'other' satellites but worth a try, if that does not get you a match post again and I'll delve into my archive (I used to do sats !) and find the refs to an amateur group doing their own thing monitoring these others.

 

[Dave In Vermont]

At least ½ of the satellites in orbit are 'classified' with no published telemetry that we can see. By having used Starry Night Pro-edition, and TheSkyX to name a few, I found their satellite data is more limited than a specialized satellite-tracking software-program. But I've been suggesting one particular program to people who come in here with a "what was THAT?" question. This being PreviSat. And it's free to load and use. And here the link:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/previsat/

I suggest updating it daily. And reading the manual that it comes with.

One thing I've been following is a Japanese satellite sent up in February seems to have exploded somehow. And pieces of this were ejected. So some of those 'unlisted' "lights in the sky" may be tumbling parts from the ASTRO-H (also known as Hitomi) satellite. But no one can be sure about this. Too bad - it was supposed to be researching black-holes.

Enjoy -

Dave

 

 

[SilverAstro]

19 minutes ago, Dave In Vermont said:

At least ½ of the satellites in orbit are 'classified' with no published telemetry that we can see.

No "Official" published telemetry, true, but we can still see and track the sats and derive the TLEs for them.

So, I delved my archive :-

There is still a Band of Brothers who observe 'les outre', http://www.satobs.org/

 that home page is a little dated now and has some bad links, but the mail group still goes strong http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html

 where Keplers (TLE) to 'other' sats can be found with a little digging.

 

[Dave In Vermont]

There's also a group in Canada that tries to identify these 'classified' satellites. But I don't have the link. Heavens' Above does have telemetry for some secret ones - such as the US Air Force mini-shuttle that has been in orbit for a long time, and we're not supposed to know about!

Most places have stopped giving the telemetry for the DPRK (North Korea) and their KMS 4 they launched in February. Why I have no clue.

Dave

[SilverAstro]

43 minutes ago, Dave In Vermont said:

There's also a group in Canada that tries to identify these 'classified' satellites. But I don't have the link.

Most places have stopped giving the telemetry for the DPRK (North Korea) and their KMS 4 they launched in February.

That is Ted Molczan (Toronto) and his group of brothers world wide that I ref.d above

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/05/science/space/05spotters.html?_r=0

http://www.wired.com/2006/02/spy-3/

examples from amongst lots more

,,,, the NK sat/launches are still being tracked by Ted et.al.

 

 

[Dave In Vermont]

Thank you for the link. The guy in Toronto is the one I was thinking of. Thanks also for the NYT-article link. The 'Wired' link demands I join-up to read it - no way. I hate that! Websites that do that get on my 'black-list' promptly. Thanks, anywho.

I'll be seeing you.....

Dave

[Debo]

Just checked with CalSky and it shows that the ISS (mag -3.5) made a close pass of Jupiter at 20.52 ADT, could be what you saw.

[SilverAstro]

4 hours ago, Dave In Vermont said:

The 'Wired' link demands I join-up to read it - no way. I hate that! Websites that do that get on my 'black-list' promptly.

Yes me too ! Something wiered about wired then, I have not joined but it let me see ( and I wouldnt have done that to you anyway ! ) He had to deal with some strange phone calls and had some run-ins with the US agencies after they tried to hide Keplers so I dunno, (try an anonomiser proxy to hide your location ? or am I being silly/paranoid-by-proxy !! )