Unusual satellite detection

[BiggarDigger]

Looking over my meteor detection logs from this morning a rather unusual observation jumped out at me.  It appears that I captured two closely orbiting large satellites less than 15 seconds apart.  The screen shot below shows the observation at 04:57:50 UTC today 8th July:

 

I'm fairly sure these objects were in orbit due to the slow Doppler shift when compared to the small meteoroid at 04:58:30.  My first reaction was that I had captured the ISS and a service craft, but the ISS was nowhere near at that time and there are no service flights that could have generated the second trace a few seconds later.

I've had a quick search through a couple of online resources, but am finding it difficult to correlate the time of the observation to any potential candidates.  Based on previous observations of the ISS and the zero Doppler shift point of each observation, the objects were likely due south of me, close to my horizon somewhere over the Bay of Biscay and illuminated by the Western facing lobes of the GRAVES RADAR.

Initial viewing of the two traces suggests that the Doppler shifts are slightly different, but that may be an optical illusion: more closely inspecting the traces suggests a very similar Doppler shift for each object, starting and completing about 600Hz apart.  That in turn suggests a similar orbital height and path. 

Did anyone else capture these objects or have any suggestions about how to locate what they might be in an online database?

Richard

[Geminids]

I see two very faint traces on one of my antennas (Blue channel) pointing to GRAVES with H-pol.

Sorry, can't help with ID 

 

[wxsatuser]

On 08/07/2019 at 20:17, BiggarDigger said:

I'm fairly sure these objects were in orbit due to the slow Doppler shift when compared to the small meteoroid at 04:58:30.  My first reaction was that I had captured the ISS and a service craft, but the ISS was nowhere near at that time and there are no service flights that could have generated the second trace a few seconds later.

I've had a quick search through a couple of online resources, but am finding it difficult to correlate the time of the observation to any potential candidates.  Based on previous observations of the ISS and the zero Doppler shift point of each observation, the objects were likely due south of me, close to my horizon somewhere over the Bay of Biscay and illuminated by the Western facing lobes of the GRAVES RADAR.

Initial viewing of the two traces suggests that the Doppler shifts are slightly different, but that may be an optical illusion: more closely inspecting the traces suggests a very similar Doppler shift for each object, starting and completing about 600Hz apart.  That in turn suggests a similar orbital height and path. 

Did anyone else capture these objects or have any suggestions about how to locate what they might be in an online database?

Richard

There were two Iridiums 7 and 36 close together at that time.

At the time you lost them they were approx 10degs above your horizon and approx 150degrees azimuth.
Your range to Iridium 7 approx 2500km and Iridium 36 2300km.

At the time you lost them they were just reaching 40degrees elevation at Dijon.

The range at Dijion would be 1300 and 1100km respectively.

Edited July 18, 2019 by wxsatuser

[BiggarDigger]

On 18/07/2019 at 22:11, wxsatuser said:

There were two Iridiums 7 and 36 close together at that time.

At the time you lost them they were approx 10degs above your horizon and approx 150degrees azimuth.
Your range to Iridium 7 approx 2500km and Iridium 36 2300km.

At the time you lost them they were just reaching 40degrees elevation at Dijon.

The range at Dijion would be 1300 and 1100km respectively.

That's great feedback, much appreciated!

Out of interest, is the source for your data online and searchable?  It would be interesting to lookup other anomalous objects in the future.

Richard

[wxsatuser]

Stellarium with the satellite plugin.