ID'ing what I saw??

[Keatah]

How can I find and identify what I saw yesterday afternoon?

It was probably a satellite, what with the -7 or -8 magnitude brightness. I have good memory of the ra'dec and time and lat/lon..

So what is a good site for going back a few days to help me figure out what I saw? It would seem that most sites tell you withe where something is right now, or where it will be. But nothing about the past..

This is important!! Big bucks in a bet are riding on good evidence!!

 

[DarkEnergy]

From the magnitude, I would guess it was an Iridium Flare of some type. They usually reach a max of -8 magnitude. Did it appear to quickly get brighter and fade?

And to find exactly what it was, Heavens-Above could be useful. I think they have an archive somewhere. Just don't forget to put in your latitude and longitude or all the numbers will be wrong.

Edit: Yes, they do have a "Previous 48 hours" link under the Iridium Flares section.

 

[Keatah]

From the magnitude, I would guess it was an Iridium Flare of some type. They usually reach a max of -8 magnitude. Did it appear to quickly get brighter and fade?

And to find exactly what it was, Heavens-Above could be useful. I think they have an archive somewhere. Just don't forget to put in your latitude and longitude or all the numbers will be wrong.

Edit: Yes, they do have a "Previous 48 hours" link under the Iridium Flares section.

Yeh on and off like a lightswitch almost. visible for about 4 to 6 minutes. I checked heavens above and it doesnt seem like an iridium flare.

 

[DarkEnergy]

Yeh on and off like a lightswitch almost. visible for about 4 to 6 minutes. I checked heavens above and it doesnt seem like an iridium flare.

Hm, sounds a lot like an Iridium Flare from that description. Are you sure you put in your correct latitude and longitude on Heavens-Above?

I can't think of anything else that would produce a magnitude of -8. The ISS only gets up to around -3.4 on a really good night. Are you sure about the magnitude?

 

[Keatah]

pretty sure, It was visible in broad daylight. Absolutely no contrail of a sort. Had the color of a xenon headlight. I had the time and position of both myself and the object accurate, gps-style..! It seemed to be of a square reflection, maybe.

Ohh well, this sort of thing happens every day with the amount of stuff that's up there.

 

[diogom]

A few days ago, I also saw something strange. It was about the same magnitude as what Keatah saw, but it had a tail (of fire, not like meteors).
It was very fast, the same speed as a meteor, and only lasted for about 3-4 seconds. Was it a meteor? Space debris? Or a sattelite re-entrying?

---------- Post added 09-07-10 at 06:45 PM ---------- Previous post was 09-06-10 at 08:29 PM ----------

This is a quick drawing I made in paint of the object.

 

[DarkEnergy]

diogom, Probably just something burning up in the atmosphere. They are usually swift and can leave trails of smoke, fire or both. It's most likely a meteor but it could be anything really.

 

[diogom]

I first assumed it was a meteor or space debris, but since I had never seen something like that before, being the Perseids I had watched a few days before totaly diferent, and that's why it was strange. But thanks for the reply. Maybe it was a smaller brother of the meteor that hit Colombia?

 

[DaveS]

Maybe it was a smaller brother of the meteor that hit Colombia?

1: It's Columbia, with an "U".
2: Columbia was not hit by either MMOD(Micro-Meteoroid, Orbital Debris) or a meteor. The orbiter's left wing Reinforced Carbon Carbon(RCC) panel#7 got hit by a piece of foam insulation from the External Tank during launch on Jan. 16 2003, creating a good sized hole in the panel which allowed super-heated air to enter the wing structure and deform it, leading to the orbiter's eventual break-up during entry on Feb. 1 2003.

All of this can be found in the CAIB final report: http://caib.nasa.gov/news/report/volume1/default.html

 

[diogom]

1: It's Columbia, with an "U".
2: Columbia was not hit by either MMOD(Micro-Meteoroid, Orbital Debris) or a meteor. The orbiter's left wing Reinforced Carbon Carbon(RCC) panel#7 got hit by a piece of foam insulation from the External Tank during launch on Jan. 16 2003, creating a good sized hole in the panel which allowed super-heated air to enter the wing structure and deform it, leading to the orbiter's eventual break-up during entry on Feb. 1 2003.

I wasn't talking about the shuttle, it was talking about a meteor tha hit Colombia, the country, last week.