What Did I See?

[charmedkelly]

Hi,

So the other night i was out with my Telescope and with the naked eye i looked up i saw two objects that were mooving downwards, they were like getting brighter then getting dull then bright then dull, for about 1minute then they changed direction and went upwards and then all of a sudden just went, they were roughly the same difference away, it definitly wasnt a plane LOL

any ideas

Kelly

[LukeSkywatcher]

Sounds like a duo of satellites to me. Not sure why they would be bright then dull then bright again, as they would be reflecting the same amount of sun light as they go. Obviously when they pass into the earths shadow they would dull and almost vanish.

Maybe they dulled a bit due to thin cloud cover then brightened after they passed by the cloud.

As to changing direction..............i've never seen a satellite do this. I have seen Chinese lantern do it though.

[charmedkelly]

nope definilty not a chinese latern , i know what they look like, its so hard to explain,

but it was not a latern lol, ive been trying to think what it could be i have no idea,

[umadog]

Satellites can change brightness as the sunlight reflects off different parts of their structures. Iridium flares are the most widely known form of this effect:

Satellite flare - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kelly's description is fairly vague, so it's hard to tell what she saw. Nonetheless, satellites won't change direction so that rules them out.

[charmedkelly]

i really wish i could have described it much better then i did.

[Moonshane]

sounds like a tumbling satellite (or two?)

Tumbling Satellites

[glowjet]

Kelly, when you have exhausted all possibilities of what they could be, the simplest answer is UFO.

[Adrian]

Helicopter?

[charmedkelly]

could have been a helicopter but im not sure, i beleive in UFO's but i didnt want to come on here an just say it , people might think im mad LOL

[ollypenrice]

Well, it is easy to believe in UFOs if you stick to the definition Unidentified Flying Object. A thrown stone qualifies. But if you insist on them being alien spacecraft it gets a bit more controvertial! Funny how alien spaceraft escape the detection of the thousands of amateur astronomers and astro photographers who are out there night after night, all night. But when a UFO believer strolls out of the Pig and Whistle at half ten, there they are!

Olly

[Moonshane]

Wow, Olly, where's this Pig and Whistle??

[charmedkelly]

Well i have no idea what it could be , it could have been a helicopter, but then again i dont know,

[Moonshane]

was it anything like this?

or this

[acey]

My dark site is a few miles from a military base and I see all sorts of weird light effects while observing. My first guess would be helicopter, perhaps with an effect of sweeping searchlight beams, or maybe something to do with flares.

The term UFO (or even "FO") is disputable, even as a simple description. A searchlight beam playing on clouds can look like a "UFO" though it's neither flying nor an object.

So I'd put this one down as a U. Or maybe OWL ("observed weird lights").

[brantuk]

I believe in UFO's too - untill I see them. Once you've seen them and identified them as a UFO they are no longer unidentified - it becomes just a FO lol

(I have yet to see a UFO with an alien in it)

[Dave S]

Could be Santa doing a trial run.

Dave...

[BazMark]

Strangest thing I ever saw whilst doing a spot of binocular astronomy one evening a few years ago was two star like objects, each made up of a bright red and white light (one within the other) shoot from west to east very fast (10 secs or less to go from horizon to horizon)

One object went dead straight, right across the sky and the other 'flew' in from the NW and at the point where it should have intersected the path of the other it just stopped going NW to SE and joined the other one on it's path. It didn't sweep round, just changed direction and then travelled side by side with the other object to the eastern horizon.

I've never found a believable explanation that fits what I saw. I just set it to one side and maybe one day I'll find an explanation that fits.

[Geoman]

Hi,

I have seen these twice (several years apart, and several years ago now) - on both occasions what looked to be a regular satellite was observed (with the naked eye) to stop for a few seconds, then travel at right angles to the original trajectory. That they were of an altitude similar to earth orbiting satellites is beyond doubt - but they did not behave like known satellites.

Due to constraints on rocket fuel/costs, very few satellites will have this kind of ability - to carry enough fuel would make the satellite hugely expensive, and for most civilian uses there would be no point in them being able to change direction. My guess is they are some sophisticated military system for changing satellite positions, or that Aurora thing you hear people speculating on.

Whatever they are - they are real objects and are under the control of someone. I'm really glad other people have seen them too.

[Zakalwe]

Hi,

Whatever they are - they are real objects and are under the control of someone. I'm really glad other people have seen them too.

Is that a conclusion I see being jumped to???

"The truth is that which is the case"....not something that we would like it to be (or indeed need it to be to support other beliefs)

[Ewan]

Could have been my mother in law