Fast moving object

[Mr Thingy]

Whilst setting up my AP session last night, and waiting for the skies to darken enough, I saw a bright light travelling very fast, roughly travelling West to N East, at a constant speed. It was slightly brighter than Polaris appeared at that time.

Fortunately I had my binos to hand so I could follow it and rule out an aeroplane. There was no tail either, so it wasn't a meteorite.

It was traveling very fast and covered about 90° of the sky in about 20 seconds and as I say, it was very bright.

Any idea what this was likely to be? I assumed a satellite but the speed and brightness made me doubt that. 

 

[Dave61]

Maybe a Elon Musk Starlink satellite.

[Mr Thingy]

1 minute ago, Dave61 said:

Maybe a Elon Musk Starlink satellite.

Yes, the chances of that have, unfortunately, risen a lot recently.

[wulfrun]

As a recent beginner, I don't think I've been out once and not seen at least one satellite - and usually several. The other night I counted 6 times one streaked through the EP view. Considering that my scope sees a tiny bit of sky and I'm looking, effectively, at random areas, it shows how much of a proliferation they are becoming. More common than Lyrids, of which I saw a total of zero last night!

Edited April 23, 2021 by wulfrun

[Mr Thingy]

20 minutes ago, wulfrun said:

As a recent beginner, I don't think I've been out once and not seen at least one satellite - and usually several. The other night I counted 6 times one streaked through the EP view. Considering that my scope sees a tiny bit of sky and I'm looking, effectively, at random areas, it shows how much of a proliferation they are becoming. More common than Lyrids, of which I saw a total of zero last night!

Yes indeed. Enough of my images get marked by satellites to know how many are up there now. I always see them when I'm doing visual too, but this was much brighter and faster.

Not doubting it's man made but just wondering if it was a satellite and why it was so fast.

[Chefgage]

ISS maybe. That travels in roughly that direction.

Edit. Scrap that idea. I have just run it through sky safari and the ISS was always below the horizon last night.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Chefgage

[Mr Thingy]

16 minutes ago, Chefgage said:

ISS maybe. That travels in roughly that direction.

Edit. Scrap that idea. I have just run it through sky safari and the ISS was always below the horizon last night.

That was my first thought, so I checked Stellarium and saw it was the opposite side of the planet. 

[blameTECHIE]

I was awake and waiting for the Dragon Crew-2/ISS docking - which is usually dangerous for the bank balance, so hit up Stellarium for a few minutes  

Taking: your profile, picking Colchester as a rough location; winding back to dusk (2030 UTC) on Thursday; looking NorthWest:

COSMOS 1455 does seem to travel the path you've described (transit time around 2mins)

if it was later than that (2115 UTC) then RESURS-DK 1 has a similar path, transiting under Polaris (transit time around 5mins though)

Hope these help, always nice to know what we've seen go overhead

[maw lod qan]

I've seen some very incredible "grazers" that just get into the atmosphere to make a bright dot traveling across the sky.

No tail or color and lasting much longer than what you expect.

[Mr Thingy]

1 hour ago, maw lod qan said:

I've seen some very incredible "grazers" that just get into the atmosphere to make a bright dot traveling across the sky.

No tail or color and lasting much longer than what you expect.

That's very interesting to hear. 

It seemed to be traveling too fast for a satellite, even one in low earth orbit.

A "grazer" would indeed seem more likely.

[Chaz2b]

I’ve heard pigs might fly, but grazers? Sheep and cows too? Probably explain some of the white trails!😜

chaz