Hi all, maybe you could clear something up for me?
I was observing this evening and noticed a very bright, slow moving object passing through the top left corner of cassiopeia at 23.00. It was moving so slowly I assumed it was a satellite however it was at least as bright as Jupiter for a while and when I checked on the Heaven Above site I could not find any satellites that were due at this time or in this area.
Was I maybe seeing things?
Si.
There are quite a few satellites that don't get into predictions for various reasons. Usually they're military, or they've only just been launched. That said, ISS made three passes this evening:
Ground Station : Tripes Farm, Orpington, Kent, England --- JO01BI
Time Zone : UTC (+0.00 h)
in eclipse * in daylight o
^ ^
Date Rising at Peak elevation Setting Height Satellite
Y M D Time Az. Time Az. El Time Az. (peak) Name
====== ========= === ========= === == ========= === ====== =========
040719 19:28:51o 252 19:33:45o 162 73 19:38:46o 79 ISS
040719 21:04:15 275 21:09:16 33 84 21:14:17* 96 ISS
040719 22:39:46 283 22:44:40* 201 40 22:49:34* 126 ISS