Possible UFO last night

At around midnight or so decided to take my 16x50 binoculars out and check out the stars since it was very clear and dark sky .
I noticed a star moving it was the same color as all the other stars but was moving very quickly in a very straight line I followed it going north to south until I lost it in a star field because i can't hold the binoculars still .

looked like a star did not flash moving quickly as far as i could tell it had to be massive . i was looking up to the west .

Pretty cool sighting but hardly proof of anything .

maybe

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Sounds exactly like a Satellite reflecting brightly the sunlight from over your horizon to me.

Keep watching, you'll see plenty, and you don't need binoculars.

originally posted by: nerbot
a reply to: Ravenwatcher

Sounds exactly like a Satellite reflecting brightly the sunlight from over your horizon to me.

......

Except the timing is wrong. In order for an object in low Earth orbit to be visible from the ground by reflected sunlight, it has be be passing by when the Sun is visible from the perspective of the object but not visible from the ground. That happens around local sunset or local sunrise, not around midnight.

It sounds to me like this was a self-luminous object.

Poster is still correct probably a satellite




a reply to: 1947boomer

originally posted by: ManBehindTheMask
Poster is still correct probably a satellite




a reply to: 1947boomer

What kind of satellite is self-luminous?

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

I thought that also only it looked to be higher then orbit and went in a straight line in my field of view right to left ,

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

In which compass direction (approximately) were you pointing the binoculars when it passed from right to left?

How long did it take (approximately) to pass from right to left?

a reply to: 1947boomer

West about 80 degrees up I would say around 3 seconds about twice as fast as a commercial airliner .

a reply to: 1947boomer

Depending on location and time of the year satellites can be seen all night long.

At the moment I believe they can be seen from the bulk of the northern hemisphere.

I agree sounds like a satellite.
What about white flashing moving lights? See them often , I'm sure it's a plane only the lack of other colors.

a reply to: chunder

You can't see them by reflected sunlight if they are in the Earth's shadow. They appear to move into the Earth's shadow shortly after sunset and stay there until shortly before sunrise. Time of year has nothing to do with it.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

I saw something like that once - without binocular - sitting by a river in the dark in Veracruz, Mexico, while my saddle horse grazrd a bit. Ended up being firefly against the night sky.

originally posted by: Ravenwatcher
a reply to: 1947boomer

West about 80 degrees up I would say around 3 seconds about twice as fast as a commercial airliner .

So it was passing from approximately north to approximately south?

Any satellite in Earth orbit does NOT trace out a ground track that literally goes from due north to due south. A satellite moving generally north to south would actually appear to be moving from the northwest to southeast to a ground observer. (This assumes that the satellite is not in a retrograde orbit, and virtually none of them are.)

Assuming it was not flying directly north to south, could you tell if it was going northwest to southeast? If it wasn't on that kind of path, then it wasn't in orbit.

Also, it usually takes a few minutes (≈ 180 seconds) for a passenger jet at cruise altitude to go from horizon to horizon (180 degrees) if it flies directly overhead. That's about 1 degree per second. This object flew nearly overhead if it was at an elevation angle of 80 degrees, so it would pass close to directly overhead. I'm assuming that when you say it took 3 seconds to go from north to south, you are referring to the time it was in the field of view of your binoculars, which would be about 3.5 degrees. If my assumptions stated above are correct then the object was moving just a bit faster through your field of view than 1 degree per second.

Your observation fits better with a fast mover air breathing aircraft flying higher and faster than a passenger jet. I imagine there could be a fair amount of those right now flying in support of the Ukraine situation.

a reply to: Ravenwatcher

There’s a few satellite tracking apps available free and pay for.

Try getting one and for each day of one week’s time, try to see if it reappears at the same time and location you spotted it.

I’d be curious of your results.

👽🛸🍺👍🏼

Back in 1974, northern suburbs of Perth Western Australia, a bunch of us kids would gather at the local park on Friday nights. We watched a "satellite" move in a rectangular course over and over. Looked just like an unblinking star.

originally posted by: 1947boomer

originally posted by: ManBehindTheMask
Poster is still correct probably a satellite




a reply to: 1947boomer

What kind of satellite is self-luminous?

They reflect sunlight.

Even when viewed at midnight or later, a satellite could be high enough to be in the sunlight (beyond the shadow of Earth).

International Space Station?

Sounds like a very cool sighting, congrats. Next time have your phone ready to take q video!

a reply to: MisguidedAngel

No way a phone would pick it up , I got a video mount ETX - I wonder if i can make it work on the bino's much easier and fast to move even on a tripod mount .