NOSS 3-6 (A) and (B)

[Subdeo]

On 11-12-17 at about 6:35pm I spotted a satellite moving NW at culmination, elevation was 27 degrees. When I looked at it through the telescope, I was taken aback to find an annoying "reflection" in the eyepiece. I wondered what was going on when I realized that no other star, planet, or satellite had this type of reflection. After a closer observation, I came to the surprising conclusion that I was not seeing one satellite, but two satellites, following each other! The first thought that came to mind was that I was seeing the recently launched Cygnus 08-A about to dock with the ISS. However, it didn't take long for me to realize that none of them were bright enough to be the ISS. After finishing my observation, I did some digging. My research led me to believe that I had seen the pair of satellites called USA 238/NOSS-3 6 A and B. Evidently, they are spy satellites that use triangulation to track ships. Cool, huh?

 

http://www.satobs.org/noss.html#Intro

[MarsG76]

Very cool

 

[wxsatuser]

Doing some widefield static tripod tests, November last year, I may have caught some of these sats.
The tracks may be sats or two parallel meteors so I'm not claiming anything here.
See what you think.

You can see the two parallel tracks and there is another to the right, may be meteor, if they are not sats then I caught 3 meteors in 13seconds.
This was a single 13sec shot at 16mm on a static tripod.

 

[Subdeo]

I think that those probably are NOSS satellites. The best way to be certain would be to check the date, time, lat., long. and direction of this picture against an online satellite database. I could try to do this if you want.

[wxsatuser]

Give it a try, would be interesting to know.

Date/time from the camera EXIF 2016:11:28 19:26:22, not sure wether the time is BST or GMT and the time might not be exact.
Sometimes the camera clock drifts but it will be with in a few minutes I would expect.

Location 50° 53′ 12.48″ N, 0° 19′ 40.44″ W

Photo was taken pointing approx just north of due east, Pleiades bottom east,  Andromeda top east and Cassiopeia top centre.

 

 

[Subdeo]

I have never done this type of thing before so if anyone could do the same thing and confirm or deny my results that would be welcomed . I did the research, and I might have found the satellites you saw. the time difference of culmination as shown by CalSKY is about 2 seconds. Your picture visually confirms this. The only thing that indicates I might be wrong is the fact that these satellites should have disappeared before coming into your FOV. However, even CalSKY admits that the satellite will be visible for a few seconds after passing into the earth's shadow. As for the identity of the other satellite, I have no idea. 

[Subdeo]

To be sure, I also checked your sky one hour before and after the 19:26 time and no other satellites matched (just to be rid of any doubt regarding time zones, etc.)

[wxsatuser]

That's very close, almost to be exact, would go along with that until someone disproves it.

Cannot be 100% sure how accurate the camera clock was, there could be some leeway there.