A Naked Eye Geo Sat?

I certainly will Martin. If it is a GRB would this not be a rare thing to catch on camera.

Thats a fascinating experience Eamonn and thanks for sharing that with me! A GRB did cross my mind after the Nova theory as a GRB would fade very fast like that. I am at a complete loss if the Sat theory dosent hold. I also have never seen anything like it before and it sure got my adrenaline pumping!

I really wish i could throw up the mental image of it at its peak magnitude as it completley blew me away. At the time i was dreaming about the 100s of calls to the CBAT as everyone observed it across the world, thats how convinced i was of it being a nova...untill it faded

My camera settings were all wrong because i was froze with excitment so the image i put up is not good at all.

Martin,

Given the time and the picture above I would estimate the elevation to be about 55 degrees? Geostationary sats from your location (guess 55 degrees N?) would never be higher than just over 27 degrees at due south and less either side of this.

So I think that you can rule out that posibility. There are of course out of control/failed Geostationary satelites that could be wandering slowly North and South..

Michael.

Thats great info Michael..cheers for that.

Does anyone know any sites or forums where people specialise with sat positions? Maybe someone could track down a culprit object. Any ideas? I would really like to make an ID on this 'star'.

Thanks

hi Martin/Conor,

there's a strong possibility it could have been a Russian comms satellite. These have stretched elliptical orbits which maximises the time they are above the Eurasian land mass. That is, apogee goes out to maybe 28,000km while perigee (somewhere over the southern hemisphere of Earth) is on the order of 1,000km altitude. I'm probably wrong on the exact figures and unfortunately don't have my laptop today to check my satellite observing bookmarks.

John

That sounds like a good candidate. I wish there was some way of nailing it down. Thats something i never thought of (or would actually know about) i would be ahpy to hear any further info if its available.

Cheers