ISS + something else

Frank,
you should e-mail him extra details about your oservation i.e. what was the closest star you know of and so on. The reason being, Terry recounts his being about mag +0.0, and you say yours was about mag -3.0.
Typical of a flare alright, seen at the same time by 2 observers on the ground, but the brightness difference between those observing points can be a few magnitudes. Maybe knowing the position of both your sightings against the background stars can offer some triangulation of the object in question?

Seanie.

Again tonight while waiting for the ISS to pass
before the Shuttle launch got scrubbed,
My Mother and I witnessed a bright 'flash' with a bit of a
streak,
Most likely a head on or almost head on meteor.
Anyone else see that one?

Here are some images of last nights iss and progress 33 at 00-05hrs 13-07-2009.



jonathan.

Barberskum wrote:

Again tonight while waiting for the ISS to pass
before the Shuttle launch got scrubbed,
My Mother and I witnessed a bright 'flash' with a bit of a
streak,
Most likely a head on or almost head on meteor.
Anyone else see that one?

Nope, exactly when did you see it ?

Nice shots Jonathan. Simple yet nice.

I had a few calls this morning (via the MAC site) about the Shuttle launch to come and strange lights seen over county Laois last night. I thought straight away that Franks sighting was connected, but what time was that Frank?

Seanie.

Hi Frank, I am not an expert on satellites but here are some thoughts...
I think it could have been geosynchronous Satellite; there are a lot of them parked in that general area along the celestial equator where your observation was roughly. (See photo links, time set ~23:15, 10th July 2009); farm4.static.flickr.com/3471/3717078082_7114369360_b.jpg
And farm4.static.flickr.com/3460/3717078088_6c13359ba1_b.jpg

A noticeable flare from a Geosat may occur depending on a number of factors such as satellite size, angular shape, and reflectivity of surface material, sun angle, and observer’s location on Earth etc etc. Some (perhaps all) of these satellites have thrusters which allow them to make small adjustments to their orbit which maybe in this case caused a flare event. I think magnitude estimation -3 is probably a record for a Geosat flare (if that is what it is of course); I think maybe magnitude +2 is exceptional for such situations.

I had the same situation in October 2007 where an unknown flare event occurred near the star Procyon over a few nights (actually more close to star HD 72945), it took a while to figure what was going on until it was discovered that it was either of two Geosats parked in the area.

It could simply be put down to an unknown event, artificial (military) or unusual natural phenomena. I have captured on about two occasions a noticeable flare event on the camera system I use for detecting meteors; I put it down to line of sight meteors as most logical explanation.

Might be worth someone’s time here on the forum to use a telescope fixed in one area of the sky where these satellites are parked (mag estimation +11 and dimmer) and with a good camera complete an exposure over time. Any point sources of light remaining (non trailing), are probably Geosats and can be checked up on the web.

Clear skies
Mike