last night

[ninoovcov]

i would like to introduce my self, my name is Nino, i have always found space interesting, since childhood when my dad showed me the moon with a pair of bins...so last year i was in town, shopping, when i came across a telescope for sale...i bought it. I now have a Skywatcher explorer 200. So i have been looking at the sky now for over a year. Anyway last night at approx 12.20 i was looking at jupiter and four moons, when i noticed a dull object go past from top right to middle left, the thing is i don't know what it was, can anyone help.

[Betelgeuse]

Welcome, Nino!

This sounds very interesting. Have you consulted local airports or RAF sites asking them if any planes were flying in your area at this time. You'll then either be able to find out if it's an identified or unidentified flying object!

[seeker372011]

it may have been a satellite.

It is very common to see satellites -which move very quickly-travel across your field of view

[ninoovcov]

thanks for your reply...it wasn't a plane, im 100% sure. The only way to describe the object i sore,....some months ago, i set out to find andromeda galaxy, it took me ages, but in the end i noticed that i had been looking at it all the time, the night wasn't the best of nights, so andromeda was like a small blur inthe sky, quite difficult to see. Anyway last night i was looking at jupiter and four moons, when i noticed an object moving in a straight line from top right to mid left, of dark colour, but lighter than the sky almost like andromeda on that night. I can only guess it to be an asteroid, and a large one, because it seemed the same size as jupiter, so it had to be nearer to earth than jupiter, maybe in the asteroid belt, im not sure, but i would love to know what it was. Oh and it wasn't moving fast across my field of veiw, it took about 8 seconds.

[Betelgeuse]

Hmm, 8 seconds. In that case, I'd go with seeker, it was probably a satellite/spacestation - some are of lower magnitude than others. You can track satellites online: http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/JTrack/3D...D/JTrack3D.html (http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/JTrack/3D/JTrack3D.html).

[Dave Mitsky]

Another site to consult is http://www.heavens-above.com

Dave Mitsky

[ninoovcov]

Thanks chaps, i think you are probally right. Been thinking about it for some time now, and came to the conclusion, that if i was focused on jupiter, would i or wouldn't i not see a sat as a blur, would have to be lucky, looking at such a tiny bit of sky, wish i could have took a photo.

[j0seph]

wow Rigel that Satellite tracker link you posted is really cool, I did't know they had something like that...

[Betelgeuse]

Great, isn't it! Sometimes I have a bit of fun watching them move over where I live on the screen and then hopping outside to watch them coming over!

[ninoovcov]

im going to try that, rigel, nice one :rolleyes: