Did I see High Flying fast-mover or satellite over UK?

Guys need some opinions

Myself and the family were on the Malvern Hills central UK just on the Hereford side (the hills block out the light pollution from the Midlands) above 11pm BST last night. It was a cloudless night, our litttle boy has never seen any shooting stars so we were star gazing.

Anyway suddenly noticed this point of light very very high moving rapidily across the sky fom west to east (roughly) must have gone completely across sky in 2-3 mins. There were at least 3 or 4 other (normal) aircraft in the sky (with running light flashing) and they were obviously much much lower and much much slower.

My thoughts this is either a low orbit satellite (probably spy satellite) because of the fast transit time across the sky or so type very high flying fast-mover.

Can anyone shed any light?

That sort of transit time would be pretty normal for something in low earth orbit. I saw the International Space Station go over at about 23:00 GMT about 1 month ago. It was very bright, and took about 3 minutes to travel from horizon to horizon. My guess is you saw something in LEO. Try science.nasa.gov... and see if you can find the satellite in question.

Yeah, i guess it's possible... And nowadays you can see satellites pretty often , if you just know when to look...

I currently work a lot of night shifts and when it's clear I can step outside and usually see at least one satellite. I saw the ISS too a while back, might have been around the same time as you Cilandak.

If I go to my parents in Norfolk where there is little or no lighting after dark, I can often see 2 or more satellites at once Usually get a bad crick in the neck though

Thanks guys much aprreciate you opinions, nice to think I might have seen the ISS tried you link Cilandak, but not working at the moment I will do some further investigation.

Cheers all

I have seen this many times whilst sky watching and I have always thought generally I was seeing satellites. I once witnessed a white orb flare up to a elongated flamed coloured bar which then cloud obscured further viewing.

Also I have noticed a few times a very high flying orb with another orb a small distance exactly in front and always maintaining the distance between.

I also once witnessed a very obvious silent but brilliant white orb pass by one evening whilst out walking. It seemed it was only flying at aircraft/helicopter altitude. My x with me at the time said it was just the police helicopter. A silent shimmering star like police helicopter is one thing but I would like to know what I have been seeing.

Sky watching on clear summer nights can be interesting viewing.

For the first thing, I don't doubt it was a satellite. Satellties are a fairly common sight if you go stargazing. For some reason stargazing on camping trips entices people of the opposite gender to sit silently beside you and do the same.

For the white orb thing I suppose it could be some osrt of balloon in an aloft wing maybe. Glider maybe. It could be quite a few things. I don't know where that particular sighting was so I can't say if it was any weapons test for the military ot perhaps if it was something else. Sry i can't be anymore help.

If the thing you saw in the sky did any sort of turn, then is wasnt a sattelite. If it moved completely strait then it probobly was a sattelite.

if you wish to see some very odd stuff, then Keighley, Silsden and Ilkley West Yorkshire. Is the place (Winter Time) Close to warton and Leeming and one or two other things.

Very low flying GR4's, F3's and some stuff I've no idea not even placing a guess!

RAB

satellite repostion themselves all the time to keep up with a specific position on earth. they can move with earth or stop and watch the entire earth spin before its eyes. im not sure if some fly as fast as Earth. i've seen satellites over me before and were not moving just sitting over head of me 3 of them in a form of a triangle. while they were sitting still the Earth was moving and the section were i was at was constantly being repostioned over the area.

it looked ufoish they way it was being done, but it may have been us. let me add there was a huge party going in the area. i did have the feeling of being watched. they even made me look dead in the sky at them when they were being moved around.

Hi, I can relate to this quite a bit.
I also live in the UK and spend a few nights a month down the beach for parties and the like. Quite often down a beach called Horton, which is on the Gower Peninsular in Wales I have seen lights moving in the sky at night.

Now, before we go off on one, I can tell the difference between and aircraft (the ones with flashing lights) and the steady, fast moving single-dot-of-light objects.

On more than once occasion I have seen upwards of 15 of them in a 2hr period. Some more faster than others, some seem to fade at certain parts of the sky, some more so fast and so brightly that they freak you out, and on several occasions I have actually seen two lights come together and merge into one slightly stronger light and then continue on the same path.

I have no idea what most of them are. I'm sure that the ones that fade out at a certain part of the sky are just reflecting the suns light after sunset and where they fade out they are going out of direct sunlight. The ones that maintain a solid light even past this point interest me. It means they have to have some sort of in built light, or else be very high in orbit to reflect light.

Some of these objects I have seen following a slightly wobbling line across the sky.

One main point of interest is that not all the objects appeared on one side of the sky and faded on another. Some objects appeared as if out of no where, and we did notice on several occasions to the beach to watch them, that they seemed to be appearing out of the same part of the sky. I can’t remember off hand which onstelation they seemed to be appearing from, but I'll get back to ya'all on that one.

thats wierd that you said you saw one light merge with another. i had this same experience at my cousins house last summer when her and her husband got married. it made me look into the sky while it was moving from where it was directly towrad another light in the sky and i felt it was making me watch until it got to the other light in the sky. my cousins live in 29palms which is a large marine base station in the desert of california. it was still daylight about 6pm in july of 2004

These flying stars i often witness on a clear night often appear from multi regions & directions in the sky and are totally silent, and vary in size. Some stay one size, some pulse...some go from small to big and vice versa. Some fly straight lines, some change direction, some have a slight zig zag to them. One changed shaped as I previously mentioned and often photo like flashes in the sky are seen which blink the once or several times. One i didn't see but my wife and friends all witnessed was a classic star like orb that stopped, wobbled on the spot as if charging up then shot off at an incredible speed leaving a neon green trace across the sky, I was a bit gutted to say the least.

I can recognise planes and such easily but what I'm also seeing which ANYBODY can is a bit harder to define. I accept that some would be satellites as I have previously stated, but some certainly do not appear to be conventional to say the least yet I have no idea what they could be.

All u need is a clear night, good company and good sun loungers and with a bit of patience you will see some very interesting lights in the night sky.




[edit on 18-8-2005 by thepostman]

originally posted by: arawak420

satellite repostion themselves all the time to keep up with a specific position on earth. they can move with earth or stop and watch the entire earth spin before its eyes.

No, they really cant!

Satellites that are geo-synchronous stay over 1 point of the earth's equator, at a distance of 22,000 miles at a velocity of 6876mph. These tend to be communication/TV satellites.

Satellites that are used to map, check weather or surveil the earth are normally in polar orbits. Satellites are able to make small adjustments to their orbit - to stop them decaying or getting out of position, but they cant just stop still or go where they like!

im not sure if some fly as fast as Earth.

Satellites are not 'flying' at all - they are orbiting. Only things in our atmosphere (generally using wings) can be said to be actually flying. And to reach escape velocity, they are already travelling more than 25,000mph. The earth rotates at 1000mph (at the equator).

it looked ufoish

It looked unidentified....ish?

a reply to: horatio321

They are falling around the earth.
I have an app which tells me which ones are above me gives me notices when the ISS is coming into view.
The amount of people who have never seen one bewilders me all you have to do is look up on a clear sky for 10 mins and you will see a couple.

a reply to: testingtesting

They are falling around the earth

Yes - which is the same thing as being in orbit :p

The amount of people who have never seen one bewilders me..

Surprisingly few people take the time to look up - even on a glorious summer night with a clear sky. I can't understand it either.