What did I see last night?

[Beagleboy]

I was observing Jupiter last night around 9pm-ish through my 150mm reflector with a 750mm focal length and 18mm eyepiece. So mag was approx x40. My location was approx, my back garden, in deepest Central Scotland.

I watched a faint point of light slowly traverse my field of view from left to right over the space of about a minute. I know the boring answer is that it was almost certainly a satellite, but they usually zip across my field of view, this was only pootling. Other than aliens (Okay, I admit I'm from Bonnybridge, the UFO capitol of the UK, 1995), what else could it have been? Near earth object or boring old satellite ?

Craig. 😏

 

[John]

Was Jupiter still in the field of view when you saw this faint point of light traverse the view ?

Was your scope driven ?

 

Edited November 29, 2023 by John

[Franklin]

If it moved at the same rate as Jupiter it could have been an internal reflection.

[Beagleboy]

Jupiter and moons were in the FOV and my scope has a wifi alt-az goto mount which was tracking Jupiter at the time. The point of light I saw was about the same magnitude as a couple of stars that were also in the FOV and actually passed between two of them. Nothing else was moving. It's genuinely got me puzzled. I reckon it must have been a satellite, but it was going so slowly across my FOV that it caught my attention. 

I'm not saying aliens..... 🤷

[Sunshine]

A floater in your eye? if not then I’m at a loss.

 

[Froeng]

A geostationary satellite? As your mount was driven it would have appeared to be moving when it fact it would have been stationary above you… The movement across the sky background would have appeared to be the same (slow) speed as Jupiter’s movement would have appeared if you had switched of the motor drive, but in the opposite direction…

[Beagleboy]

As much as I'd have loved it to be Marvin, who's far and away my favourite cartoon character (thank you @Sunshine), Your explanation @Froeng, sounds much more plausible 🙂. The mysterious point of light drifted across my field of view at the right sort of speed had my mount been switched off. Geostationary satellite it is then!

Thank you, hopefully I can get back to sleeping at night without fear of being probed again. 😉 

Craig

[Froeng]

Well,

you should always watch Uranus, just in case anyway!

sorry - couldn’t resist!🤣

[Joe G]

Hi

Apologies in advance for butting in but I didn’t want to start a new thread. I have a friend calling this evening to hopefully look through my telescope & was wondering if the GRS will be visible on Jupiter at some point. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated 

thanks Joe