(DougD) wrote in :

Snipola
sometimes
it's not possible to actually spot an iridium until it's started it's
flare, so that the normal transit time of maybe a few minutes gets cut
down to the 15-25 seconds when it's most visible.

Re-reading his description, I still doubt it was an Iridium,
unless it was a tumbler - he mentions changing magnitude.

I'd still like to get a better idea of what he means by "moving
quite fast". I think we're just arguing air with a description
like that.

If the original poster is reading this, coudl you describe the
apparent speed better? Perhaps hold out your hand at arms length
and spread your fingers wide - about how long did the sat take
to pass that span? How spans across the sky was the sat visible?



Snipola
also how I found that "tethered" satellite (if that's what it was)

Sounds like TIPS, which I've never seen.


which
still has me fairly amazed at having seen something like that, just so
odd.. A triangle of sat's all travelling at the same speed relative to
each other.

That sounds like a NOSS trio. I've seen those.

The most amazing thing I've seen was one of the USA series
spy sats, USA 32 I think it was. Thing looked like it could
have been Pink Floyds mirror ball up there the way it was
sparkling. I'm sure the conspiracy nutz would have had a
field day with that observation.

Brian
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