Wait.... Stars dont move

At the risk of repeating what has already been said, satellites absolutely positively do not change direction or stop. They have no propulsion unto themselves, they are in a constant state of falling, this was Newtons revelation when he realized it was gravity that held the moon in orbit.
Think of it this way, when you throw a ball it makes an arc until it hits the ground, if you were able to throw it with enough velocity that the arc was so big it actually missed the earth it will continually keep falling and continually keep missing the earth, so long as it's above the atmosphere to avoid air resistance and it's velocity is 8km/sec, this is what an orbit is. The earth is actually falling towards the sun it just keeps missing.

Of course they can't change direction, however they can appear to change direction that is what I'm saying. I was looking for the posts about satellites changing direction but i could not find it but it basically has to do with the satellites flight path and your viewing position on Earth. Satellites are never directly above you and therefor will never appear to be cross the sky in a straight line, some will look like there curving round others perfectly straight and some depending on where you live will appear to change direction completely.

Yes they can appear to arc just as the stars arc arcross the sky, the arc will always be a constant, they won't appear to change direction completely, the earths rotation and the satelites orbits are a constant. A far cry from doing 90 degree turns or tracking back on themselves.

[edit on 9-11-2006 by squiz]

Of course they can't change direction, however they can appear to change direction that is what I'm saying. I was looking for the posts about satellites changing direction but i could not find it but it basically has to do with the satellites flight path and your viewing position on Earth. Satellites are never directly above you and therefor will never appear to be cross the sky in a straight line, some will look like there curving round others perfectly straight and some depending on where you live will appear to change direction completely.

Any satellite that is visible to the naked eye will never appear to change direction, and any curves that they appear to make are optical illusions. The only objects that can appear to change direction are those that have large, highly eccentric orbits. That's because they slow down appreciably as they approach apogee (furthest distance from Earth), and this allows the rotating Earth to "catch up" (so to speak).

These satellites will almost certainly be very faint when they approach apogee, and therefore are unlikely to be seen by casual observers.

I just watched one of these pull a 90 degree turn the other night. I have also seen them fade out in the presence of military craft, then brighten back up when out of range. Most are likely satellites, but not all IMO.

i've seen something similar, but harder to dismiss as "Satellites".

i was on vacation some years back with my family. we were heading to yellowstone national park from los angeles, taking the "Scenic" route through as many other national parks and such as possible.

it was probly somewhere between 9 and 10 PM on a pretty clear night, and i was bored sitting in the car as we rode along the highway, and so i started to stare out the window. i noticed three stars in a pretty perfect looking triangle formation, that i had never noticed before, which struck me as odd since i usually sat in my backyard and stared into the sky via my eye and my telescope on a fairly regular basis. as i watched the "Stars", the top one, which was the "peak" of the triangle, shifted down to a spot directly between the bottom two, forming a horizontal line. the bottom two then rotated so the line became vertical, and then they formed an inverted triangle, and so on, forming quite a number of geometric patterns, until they were in their original positions of a triangle, and then the top one slowly faded away. the other two moved about a few times, and then the second one faded. after that the remaining "star" flew away quickly to the left(i can't remember which direction it went as i can't remember which state we were in or whether we were goin to or coming back from yellowstone).

the "stars" were visible for a good amount of time, probly 10-15 minutes total, before the last one sped off. so make of that story what you will.

it was a VERY cool vacation.

Yeah i've seen something similar to the last poster too. I was in Sedona watching the night sky with my sister while staying at a motel there. The motel was located on a mesa that overlooks most of sedona.

It was a very clear night and the milky way was visible. Suddenly a group of either 5 or 7. It was definantly one or the other, and my sister agrees on this point too, dim blue small stars appeared. They were small but space apart greatly, and appeared very high up, but could have been close to the ground as I have no clue as to the size of the individuel lights. THey were in a loose circle but traveling as a whole,ridgidly without breaking the formation in the slightest. The group traveled about and eighth of the sky and then winked out in unison and reappered on the other side of the sky, again in the exact formation. From there they traveled on towords the horizon and became too dim to see any more. They were traveling at a leisurly pace, they didn't seem to be in a hurry.

Incedentaly beside it being sedona, there was a peculiar lightning storm that night going on while this happened (no they were'nt ball lightning or similar phenomina) Even though there were no clouds in the sky directly overhead there were thunderheads about 20 miles away that were shooting huge arcs of lightning across the cloudless sky. The lightning wouldn't touch the ground at least not anywhere visable to me. It was not bright lightning but deep blue with a whitish glow. sometimes becoming faint. The arcs were silent and resembled tree branches curving over the sky. When asked apparently the lightning show are famous there, and the ufos were really frequent there too.

Maybe the lights were also interested in the lightning too, although they were keeping clear of the part of the sky lightning was shooting around in.

Sorry i was away for a while,
To answer your question squiz, It was traveling in a south western direction, and if it helps any geographically, im in Ohio

Given the direction it wouldn't be your regular satellite, that doesn't rule out the possibility of polar orbiting satellites.
Although it would be rare to see two of them so close together. Then, If the first had disapeared possible because of moving into the shadow of the earth then the second should as well? at pretty much the same area of sky, but if you are unable to see many stars and if they were as bright as a star you can probably rule out satellites.

[edit on 10-11-2006 by squiz]

I just watched one of these pull a 90 degree turn the other night. I have also seen them fade out in the presence of military craft, then brighten back up when out of range. Most are likely satellites, but not all IMO.

If it "pulls a 90 degree turn", then it is NOT A SATELLITE !!!

Originally posted by Mogget

I just watched one of these pull a 90 degree turn the other night. I have also seen them fade out in the presence of military craft, then brighten back up when out of range. Most are likely satellites, but not all IMO.

If it "pulls a 90 degree turn", then it is NOT A SATELLITE !!!

That was my point. I have seen the ones that travel in a fairly straight line across the sky at a fairly even speed, then I have seen objects that do things I know are not conventional. Some of these 'star-like' objects are definitely not satellites or conventional craft.

Hey DD,

I feel your frustration. I too know that these things aren't satellites nor stars either.

I also have seen this in Auburn, AL. It was a bright blue star moving across the sky. What was weird was that you could see the clouds behind it. We kept watching it- and then it disappeared, and we saw a plane circling the location were the "star" was. The only way that I could explain it to myself was that it was some sort of "mask" for an aircraft. Actually, I didn't believe in any of this--but this is the event that made me join ATS one year ago!

reply to post by ignorant_ape


the only odd thing is ur rep
ive seen these things to and no they are not satelites
they dont move that fast

I once saw a star start to move, it has just been another star in the sky.. slowly moving with the constelations.. then it just went to moving left and kept going left till it went over the tree line.

was .. freaky...

reply to post by hisshadow


so what did phage had to say about
it
surely he has an explanation

Just off your title, stars do move. They orbit the center of the galaxy.

What you saw were most likely satelites or space junk. Very common.

Some meteors will break into pieces and appear to be zig-zagging. I have seen them do this, or I might have seen a military toy.