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Old October 26th 11, 04:13 PM posted to sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe
DougD
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Posts: 19
Default Same satelite twice???

In article , Me wrote:
The change in brightness could
be from all sorts of reasons, the first that comes to mind is even though
it was only 15 minutes of difference, your location relative to the Sun,
which is what is illuminating the object that you are seeing have changed
over that amount of time.


Or perhaps even more likely, the second piece was smaller than the
first?


out of curiosity, could it be two totally unrelated satellites, on two
different orbits?

Jean


Yes, I've seen an Iridium and another satellite appear to travel on the same
path a few minutes apart. I went back and looked at the actual orbits using
Starry Night, etc. and they really weren't even that close in orbit, but the
eye and brain fill in the blanks in different ways to make them appear close.
Whether they would both flare would be a bit unusual, unless they were
both Iridiums,

d.