Satellites as Bright as Planets?

R

Rowman

New Member
I'm curious if any of you know of a SkyView-like app for satellite tracking that can go back in time.

I'm trying confirm whether two stationary planet-like (in brightness) light sources that were closer together than usual for planets (that I assumed to be Saturn and Jupiter initially) were in fact satellites reflecting sunlight that passed into the Earth's shadow (as they faded out about a minute after first I spotted them). It was their closeness together and their brightness that caught my attention. (The "two satellites" sighting occurred in the mid-Atlantic in the Northwest Sky ~2:45 AM on Sunday night, technically Monday morning, May 29, 2023.)
 
Stellarium with the Satellites plugin can show you historical satellite positions if you have the tracking data for the Satellites (NLE)

Note there are military satellites which might not be in NLEs

@flarkey will have better info on satellite tracking

You might have seen flaring Starlinks, an increasingly commonly reported sighting.
 
captancourgette said:
ISS can get to -5.9 magnitude & IIRC iridium flares can go greater than -10 (though thats only for a second or 2)
Click to expand...

I believe the original Iridium satellites which produced those very bright flares are no longer in orbit.

The first generation of the Iridium constellation launched a total of 95 telecommunication satellites in low Earth orbit which were known to cause Iridium flares, the brightest flares of all orbiting satellites, starting in 1997. From 2017 to 2019 they were replaced with a new generation that does not produce flares, with the first generation completely deorbited by 27 December 2019.
Content from External Source
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare
 
Rowman said:
I'm curious if any of you know of a SkyView-like app for satellite tracking that can go back in time.

I'm trying confirm whether two stationary planet-like (in brightness) light sources that were closer together than usual for planets (that I assumed to be Saturn and Jupiter initially) were in fact satellites reflecting sunlight that passed into the Earth's shadow (as they faded out about a minute after first I spotted them). It was their closeness together and their brightness that caught my attention. (The "two satellites" sighting occurred in the mid-Atlantic in the Northwest Sky ~2:45 AM on Sunday night, technically Monday morning, May 29, 2023.)
Click to expand...
I keep historical TLE sets. But May 29 2023 wasn't that long ago. Stellarium is what II use to look for stuff like that. You gave a time and direction (northwest approx 2:45 on Sunday night) but you didn't give a rough location you were at. You need location, date/time and direction to get set up to check. Btw, there's be a lot of satellites "in the northwest sky", narrowing it down the elevation above the horizon would be useful information.
 
Trailblazer said:
I believe the original Iridium satellites which produced those very bright flares are no longer in orbit.

The first generation of the Iridium constellation launched a total of 95 telecommunication satellites in low Earth orbit which were known to cause Iridium flares, the brightest flares of all orbiting satellites, starting in 1997. From 2017 to 2019 they were replaced with a new generation that does not produce flares, with the first generation completely deorbited by 27 December 2019.
Content from External Source
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare
Click to expand...
But there is already a second generation, Iridium-Next. Not sure if these reflect similarly as the first generation though, it depends a lot on the shape and reflecting parts on the sats.
 
Rowman said:
I'm curious if any of you know of a SkyView-like app for satellite tracking that can go back in time.

I'm trying confirm whether two stationary planet-like (in brightness) light sources that were closer together than usual for planets (that I assumed to be Saturn and Jupiter initially) were in fact satellites reflecting sunlight that passed into the Earth's shadow (as they faded out about a minute after first I spotted them). It was their closeness together and their brightness that caught my attention. (The "two satellites" sighting occurred in the mid-Atlantic in the Northwest Sky ~2:45 AM on Sunday night, technically Monday morning, May 29, 2023.)
Click to expand...
for going back in time in-the-sky.org is best as it uses the orbital data that was valid at the time you set. they have a spacecraft tab and a planetarium view. quite simple to , but you need to remember to set your location.
 
Rowman said:
I'm curious if any of you know of a SkyView-like app for satellite tracking that can go back in time.
Click to expand...

Heavens-Above will give you predictions (and past data) for brighter satellites:

https://heavens-above.com/AllSats.aspx?lat=0&lng=0&loc=Unspecified&alt=0&tz=UCT

Adjust your location at the top right of the page. Then click on the times and it will show you a chart of the satellite pass.

If they were stationary, that doesn't sound like planets, though. Could they have been planes flying directly towards you, with landing lights illuminated? They can appear almost stationary, then disappear when they turn.
 
Trailblazer said:
I believe the original Iridium satellites which produced those very bright flares are no longer in orbit.

The first generation of the Iridium constellation launched a total of 95 telecommunication satellites in low Earth orbit which were known to cause Iridium flares, the brightest flares of all orbiting satellites, starting in 1997. From 2017 to 2019 they were replaced with a new generation that does not produce flares, with the first generation completely deorbited by 27 December 2019.
Content from External Source
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare
Click to expand...
I believe that 29 first-generation Iridium satellites remain in orbit, the ones that were still online and able to be deorbited have been. The remaining offline satellites will have to wait until their orbits decay on their own. Since their orientations are no longer controlled, flares are no longer predictable. I've seen a late-daylight Iridium flare from a survivor in the last year, though I can't remember which one. It was as bright but more brief than typical flares that I'd seen and planned for before.

This website appears to have up to date elements for the remaining constellation:
https://www.n2yo.com/satellites/?c=15

And from wiki:

Total: 80
List of defunct Iridium satellites previously in operating service[50][51]
SatelliteDateReplacementStatus
Iridium 73Nov/Dec 1998Iridium 75Uncontrolled orbit
Iridium 48Nov/Dec 1998Iridium 20aDecayed 5 May 2001
Iridium 2Nov/Dec 1998?Uncontrolled orbit
Iridium 9October 2000Iridium 84Decayed 11 March 2003
Iridium 38September 2003Iridium 82Uncontrolled orbit
Iridium 16April 2005Iridium 86Uncontrolled orbit
Iridium 17August 2005Iridium 77Uncontrolled orbit
Iridium 74January 2006Iridium 21aDeorbited 11 June 2017
Iridium 36January 2007Iridium 97Uncontrolled orbit
Iridium 28July 2008Iridium 95In orbit
Iridium 3310 February 2009Iridium 91Destroyed in collision with Kosmos 2251. Some fragments remain in orbit, while some have decayed.
Iridium 26August 2011Iridium 11aIn orbit
Iridium 42012Iridium 96In orbit
Iridium 29Early 2014Iridium 45In orbit
Iridium 42August 2014Iridium 98Uncontrolled orbit
Iridium 63August 2014Iridium 14aIn orbit
Iridium 6October 2014Iridium 51Decayed 23 December 2017
Iridium 57May 2016Iridium 121Observed drifting from nominal position
Iridium 39June 2016Iridium 15In orbit
Iridium 72017Iridium 51Failed in orbit
Iridium 222017?Failed in orbit
Iridium 77August 2017Iridium 109Decayed 22 September 2017
Iridium 30August 2017Iridium 126Decayed 28 September 2017
Iridium 8November 2017Iridium 133Decayed 24 November 2017
Iridium 34December 2017Iridium 122Decayed 8 January 2018
Iridium 3?Iridium 131Decayed 8 February 2018
Iridium 43?Iridium 111Decayed 11 February 2018[52]
Iridium 49??Decayed 13 February 2018
Iridium 23??Decayed 28 March 2018
Iridium 94??Decayed 18 April 2018
Iridium 19??Decayed 19 April 2018
Iridium 13??Decayed 29 April 2018
Iridium 25??Decayed 14 May 2018
Iridium 72??Decayed 14 May 2018
Iridium 21a??Decayed 24 May 2018
Iridium 37??Decayed 26 May 2018
Iridium 68??Decayed 6 June 2018
Iridium 67??Decayed 2 July 2018
Iridium 75??Decayed 10 July 2018
Iridium 81??Decayed 17 July 2018
Iridium 65??Decayed 19 July 2018
Iridium 41??Decayed 28 July 2018
Iridium 80??Decayed 12 August 2018
Iridium 18??Decayed 19 August 2018
Iridium 66??Decayed 23 August 2018
Iridium 98??Decayed 24 August 2018
Iridium 76??Decayed 28 August 2018
Iridium 47??Decayed 1 September 2018
Iridium 12??Decayed 2 September 2018
Iridium 50??Decayed 23 September 2018
Iridium 40??Decayed 23 September 2018
Iridium 53??Decayed 30 September 2018
Iridium 86??Decayed 5 October 2018
Iridium 10??Decayed 6 October 2018
Iridium 70??Decayed 11 October 2018
Iridium 56??Decayed 11 October 2018
Iridium 15??Decayed 14 October 2018 (Over No. Pacific)
Iridium 20a??Decayed 22 October 2018
Iridium 11a??Decayed 22 October 2018
Iridium 84??Decayed 4 November 2018
Iridium 83??Decayed 5 November 2018
Iridium 52??Decayed 5 November 2018
Iridium 62??Decayed 7 November 2018
Iridium 31??Decayed 20 December 2018
Iridium 35??Decayed 26 December 2018
Iridium 90??Decayed 23 January 2019
Iridium 32??Decayed 10 March 2019
Iridium 59??Decayed 11 March 2019
Iridium 91??Decayed 13 March 2019
Iridium 14a??Decayed 15 March 2019
Iridium 60??Decayed 17 March 2019
Iridium 95??Decayed 25 March 2019
Iridium 55??Decayed 31 March 2019
Iridium 64??Decayed 1 April 2019
Iridium 58??Decayed 7 April 2019
Iridium 24??Decayed 11 May 2019
Iridium 54??Decayed 11 May 2019
Iridium 61??Decayed 23 July 2019
Iridium 97??Decayed 27 December 2019
Iridium 96??Decayed 30 May 2020
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation#Defunct_satellites
http://www.rod.sladen.org.uk/iridium.htm
Note that the wiki article indicates this was the status in January 2023, but the source page shows the last update in June 2020.
 
as well as iridium flares there are a number of satellite pairs and triplets that flare very brightly. I've seen a NOSS triplet form a massive black triangle in the eastern sky, and the Yaogan satellites flare as a very bright double. And if course there are the Starling flares which can happen with numerous simultaneous flares and these can be very bright too - certainty as bright as Jupiter.


Source: https://youtu.be/5IvBOi8LexA
 
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