Odd observations when star gazing

deadlybuzzman

Last Thursday night there was 4 of us sitting out while glamping outside Cookstown (it's only 1 of 3 areas on the island devoid of light pollution).

First we seen the ISS purely by chance zipping by which was a great surprise. After that on a few occasions from 11pm onwards we could hear a helicopter passing but nothing came up on flight radar 24 and it had no lights on which I thought was odd, would that have been an army helicopter?

Also at about 11:30pm a very bright light passed over going north to South quite quickly with no noise and again we seen another light at approx 12:30 on a slightly NW SE deviation from the 1st light. Do satellites orbit pole to pole while being almost as visible as the ISS?

lintdrummer

https://boards.ie/discussion/2058199489/odd-observations-when-star-gazing

That's funny. There was a group of us out at the same time in rural Roscommon having a few beers and stargazing and we saw the same thing, minus the helicopter. Very bright white light. Seemed kind of low in the sky compared to what I've observed the ISS before and it seemed quite bright. Checked the ISS tracker when it went over the second time and it was visible around that time so I presumed that was it. 🤷‍♂️

deadlybuzzman

What I seen 2nd and the 3rd time were traveling on a course not far from perpendicular to when I seen the ISS, I mentioned only because it was cool just to see it by chance. The 2nd and 3rd lights were brighter than most but not all stars and moved slower than the ISS. Are there pole to pole orbiting satellites that are visible to the naked eye?

lintdrummer

https://boards.ie/discussion/comment/117634046#Comment_117634046

What we saw was travelling roughly Southwest to Northeast both times. Was slower than most satellites you'd see and was the brightest thing in the sky. Saw it at 1.10am, that was the first time we saw it, recorded it on my phone so I know the time is accurate. Approx an hour or so later we saw the same thing again. Must have a look and see if there is data about what satellites were visible from that location at the time. Saw starlink at some stage as well, very faint but a definite train of satellites were visible.

lintdrummer

To answer my own question, there is a great resource for satellite data and you can look at last Thursday night here:

https://in-the-sky.org/satpasses.php?day=15&month=7&year=2021&mag=4&anysat=v0&group=1&s=

Location is set to Swords, but close enough. Prime candidate for what I observed is a Russian satellite SL-14 R/B. Very bright according to that table and in the right orbit at the right time.

Vladimir is watching you.

deadlybuzzman

Wow that's a fantastic resource. Yep looks like it was the ruskies..... And maybe the brit army running about in the hills! 😁

greenspurs

We were in the back garden one evening last week, dont know what evening exactly, and we saw the same.

What i presumed was the ISS passed over, but then a very bright white object passed a while after.

Im in the southeast.

Ger Roe

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117672682#Comment_117672682

There are lots of bright moving objects in the sky on a clear night. Could be a lone satellite, could be a string of Elon Musks Starlink, or could be a 'space chase' (supply or crew rocket heading to the ISS). It is an exciting time to take a look up at night - best bet is to get a good tracking phone app and see what it tells you.

I would recommend ISS Live Now - it has links to NASA TV and the other space agencies coverage, a real time location map for the station, a real time view of the earth in HD as well as alerts when the ISS is passing overhead at your location.

Plenty of space stuff to keep you interested and informed.

deadlybuzzman

Just wondering, would most helicopters flying at night have lights on them the way fixed wing aircraft do?

faoiarvok

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117673405#Comment_117673405

Yes, but it’s very unlikely you’d see a helicopter and not hear it.

deadlybuzzman

It was the opposite, I could hear it going around for about an hour bur we never seen any lights. That's why I was wondering was it British army rather than a civilian helicopter?

faoiarvok

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117676289#Comment_117676289

Oh sorry yeah. I have seen the Garda helicopter flying at night with no lights so it’s possibly military/police. Don’t know if SAR turn their lights off when using night vision goggles. They’re the most likely to be flying at night anyway.

The other possibility is just that it was too low to see behind trees, terrain, etc. Helicopter noise will carry pretty far, especially on a clear night.