Identify what is flying across the moon?

[MonsterMagnet]

Hi All.

I was messing about pointing my WO ZS 73 at the Moon last night whilst deciding what to image and whilst I was recording something flew across the disk of the moon.  Originally I thought it might have been the ISS but it doesn't look right.

Can anyone help identify it?

The timing was 9.59pm London time.

Cheers.

MM

[Barry Fitz-Gerald]

I suppose the obvious candidate is birds, but at this resolution I cannot see any obvious wing flapping. However if they were large birds migrating at altitude then they could be soaring on air currents and not actively flapping. If they are birds they would have to be at a reasonable height ( a few thousand feet maybe) as on most nights I have seen birds transiting the moon (Swifts, Gulls) they do so a lot faster as they are a lot lower. Being elongate across the direction of travel also suggests outstretched wings though the profile changes slightly as they pass upwards, but this could be a result of changing perspective.

[MonsterMagnet]

3 hours ago, Barry Fitz-Gerald said:

I suppose the obvious candidate is birds, but at this resolution I cannot see any obvious wing flapping. However if they were large birds migrating at altitude then they could be soaring on air currents and not actively flapping. If they are birds they would have to be at a reasonable height ( a few thousand feet maybe) as on most nights I have seen birds transiting the moon (Swifts, Gulls) they do so a lot faster as they are a lot lower. Being elongate across the direction of travel also suggests outstretched wings though the profile changes slightly as they pass upwards, but this could be a result of changing perspective.

Thanks for the reply.

It could be a bird but the path seems very straight and linear to be a bird.  We also don't have many large migrating birds over London but I guess it could be a gull.

I thought it looked more artificial but as you say, the poor resolution makes it hard to really pin it down.

Thanks again

MM

[Elp]

It's doesn't move and seems to have a constant velocity and vector. Looking at sky safari it's actually frightening how many starlink satellites are in the sky and there's only a tenth of the the planned amount up there. I'm guessing there's a chance your video maybe upside down also?

[Paul M]

It wasn't ISS going off this: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/view.cfm?country=United_Kingdom&region=England&city=London  ISS is currently culminating in the early mornings.

There will be plenty of candidates with 2 large solar arrays, but it would need you precise loaction and a bit of work and even then, if it's a military sat then it might not be very well advertised!

Whatever it was, it was a very impressive capture! Excellent!

 

[Albir phil]

Looking at your video under a magnifying glass there seems to be two objects with a small separation between them you can see the moon through the gap,what it is I have no idea ,one of those mystery s hope someone has the answer 🤔

[MonsterMagnet]

On 03/09/2023 at 22:10, Elp said:

It's doesn't move and seems to have a constant velocity and vector. Looking at sky safari it's actually frightening how many starlink satellites are in the sky and there's only a tenth of the the planned amount up there. I'm guessing there's a chance your video maybe upside down also?

 

Thanks for your reply, you are indeed correct that it's upside down - I only stabilised the video, nothing more.  It could well be a starlink, I was in Spain recently and I watched the whole train of them pass over.  It's quite a cool sight if it wasn't for all the obvious downsides.

MM

[MonsterMagnet]

On 03/09/2023 at 22:13, Paul M said:

It wasn't ISS going off this: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings/view.cfm?country=United_Kingdom&region=England&city=London  ISS is currently culminating in the early mornings.

There will be plenty of candidates with 2 large solar arrays, but it would need you precise loaction and a bit of work and even then, if it's a military sat then it might not be very well advertised!

Whatever it was, it was a very impressive capture! Excellent!

 

 

Thanks!  It was a lucky capture more than anything.

Yeah, I ruled out the ISS so assumed it must be a satellite of some description.

MM

[carastro]

It's not the ISS as that is more of an H shape.  Too straight to be a bird and no flapping wings.  Guess it is one of those 1000s of satellites up there.  

Edited September 6, 2023 by carastro

[Elp]

I'm sure I saw something incredibly similar last night, again passing in between the moon, it was however half the size.