Something buzzed Saturn

Nice clear skies here so tried hunting down DSOs (towards the
North to avoid the Moon). Few minutes later low cloud starts rolling
in towards the North, so turns the scope around to the South. Used
S&T's Interactive Sky Chart to re-plan observing. Notice Saturn
prominent in the South, so decided to check out Saturn for a while.
Within the first 2 minutes, I saw a fast moving object cross the FOV
(just above Saturn) moving at 1 degree per second towards the East.
Very faint, around mag +4. It continued moving East before I lost it
behind buildings. Much too fast and faint for an aircraft (slower and
brighter, and they blink too!) Happened at 05:24 UTC. Satellite or some
space junk? Earlier I saw a meteor, mag 0, just to the right of Regulus.

On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 07:00:52 +0000, wrote:


Nice clear skies here so tried hunting down DSOs (towards the North to
avoid the Moon). Few minutes later low cloud starts rolling in towards
the North, so turns the scope around to the South. Used S&T's Interactive
Sky Chart to re-plan observing. Notice Saturn prominent in the South, so
decided to check out Saturn for a while. Within the first 2 minutes, I saw
a fast moving object cross the FOV (just above Saturn) moving at 1 degree
per second towards the East. Very faint, around mag +4. It continued
moving East before I lost it behind buildings. Much too fast and faint
for an aircraft (slower and brighter, and they blink too!) Happened at
05:24 UTC. Satellite or some space junk? Earlier I saw a meteor, mag 0,
just to the right of Regulus.


Probably a sat. I've seen plenty of them in the eyepiece while observing
over the years.

Ed wrote:

Nice clear skies here so tried hunting down DSOs (towards the
North to avoid the Moon). Few minutes later low cloud starts rolling
in towards the North, so turns the scope around to the South. Used
S&T's Interactive Sky Chart to re-plan observing. Notice Saturn
prominent in the South, so decided to check out Saturn for a while.
Within the first 2 minutes, I saw a fast moving object cross the FOV
(just above Saturn) moving at 1 degree per second towards the East.
Very faint, around mag +4. It continued moving East before I lost it
behind buildings. Much too fast and faint for an aircraft (slower and
brighter, and they blink too!) Happened at 05:24 UTC. Satellite or some
space junk? Earlier I saw a meteor, mag 0, just to the right of Regulus.






Possible Santa test flight?

John Kulczycki wrote:
Ed wrote:

Nice clear skies here so tried hunting down DSOs (towards the
North to avoid the Moon). Few minutes later low cloud starts rolling
in towards the North, so turns the scope around to the South. Used
S&T's Interactive Sky Chart to re-plan observing. Notice Saturn
prominent in the South, so decided to check out Saturn for a while.
Within the first 2 minutes, I saw a fast moving object cross the FOV
(just above Saturn) moving at 1 degree per second towards the East.
Very faint, around mag +4. It continued moving East before I lost it
behind buildings. Much too fast and faint for an aircraft (slower and
brighter, and they blink too!) Happened at 05:24 UTC. Satellite or some
space junk? Earlier I saw a meteor, mag 0, just to the right of Regulus.


Possible Santa test flight?

Unlikely. He usually launches on polar suborbital trajectory.

- Alex