Hello Everyone, Could I please ask for some help in identifying the satellites involved in an observation I and several others made? Location: Brisbane, Australia (Lat. 27.5 South Long. 153.0 East) Time: 10:15 UT 12th of March 2005 (20:15 local time on the same date - 2 hours 7 minutes after local sunset) Observation details: 2 bright satellites (both equal in magnitude about -1) apperently in the exact same orbit. They were seen for 5 to 10 seconds moving slowly towards the South-Eastern horizon. The objects were watched until they both faded from view, the lead object fading first and the trailing object fading second. The distance between the two objects was approximately 2.5 degrees. They were first seen at Alt: 56degrees/Az: 164degrees and faded from naked eye sight at Alt: 42degrees/Az: 148degrees. Seen against the background stars, the pair were travelling from within the constellation of Carina and heading towards Crux. Secondary information: I work at the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium (see the above location details) and was conducting a telescope observing session in our domed observatory with 8 guests. After the telescopic viewing I took the guests outside and used my green laser pointer to show off some of the constellations when we all saw the satellites as we were looking in the area above Crux. I subsequently looked on the heavens-above web site but there was no mention of satellites that bright nor at the time seen. Neither could I find any information about a recent rocket launch. Any help will grateful, Peter Frankland. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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