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What Did I See Tonight?

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Eastender | 20:55 Thu 29th Sep 2011 | Science
17 Answers
Hi about 7.30pm tonight, whilst standing out the back garden. I looked up and saw a white light, which at first I thought was a star, this light was moving, and it was very high, no Red lights, no Green light, and no Orange lights. As I watched it moving, the light just started to fade out then went completely out, so I could not see anything. As it was just getting dusk if it was a plane I would have seen some light surely. If it was a Shooting Star, would it looked like it was coming down, instead of just going straight? Can someone shed some light on this (no pun intended). Thanks
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Here are the times for the Iss at the moment.
THE FOLLOWING ISS SIGHTINGS ARE POSSIBLE FROM WED SEP 28 TO THU OCT 13
SATELLITE LOCAL DURATION MAX ELEV APPROACH DEPARTURE
DATE/TIME (MIN) (DEG) (DEG-DIR) (DEG-DIR)

ISS Thu Sep 29/04:35 AM 1 29 29 above ESE 14 above E
ISS Thu Sep 29/06:07 AM 4 75 12 above W 34 above E
ISS Fri Sep 30/05:10 AM 2 66 56 above SW...
21:22 Thu 29th Sep 2011
An aeroplane overflying the UK. There wouldn`t be any red or green lights because they don`t have them
A satellite or international space station?
-- answer removed --
sky lantern most likely
Question Author
You always get a reply from someone with the brains of a Rocking Horse.
who are you insulting there, eastender?
Thanks. I`m so glad you think we have the brains of a rocking horse.
Which direction was it moving in? It sounds like it could be the ISS. There is a poster on here who often gives the time/direction of its appearances and they could confirm for you.
Sounds like you saw a satellite Eastender. The larger ones are very bright with reflected sunlight and move acro the sky as you describe. The ISS is very bright indeed if you ever see that. If you look up at one spot in the night sky with binoculars you can often see several fainter satellites passing through the field of view every minute.It has to be a clear night though.
The Iss is not visible at the moment at that time. It is going over the Uk early mornings times like between 5 and 6 am.
Here are the times for the Iss at the moment.
THE FOLLOWING ISS SIGHTINGS ARE POSSIBLE FROM WED SEP 28 TO THU OCT 13
SATELLITE LOCAL DURATION MAX ELEV APPROACH DEPARTURE
DATE/TIME (MIN) (DEG) (DEG-DIR) (DEG-DIR)

ISS Thu Sep 29/04:35 AM 1 29 29 above ESE 14 above E
ISS Thu Sep 29/06:07 AM 4 75 12 above W 34 above E
ISS Fri Sep 30/05:10 AM 2 66 56 above SW 26 above E
ISS Sat Oct 01/04:13 AM 1 20 20 above E 11 above E
ISS Sat Oct 01/05:45 AM 3 75 23 above W 27 above ESE
ISS Sun Oct 02/04:48 AM 1 43 43 above ESE 18 above E
ISS Sun Oct 02/06:20 AM 5 55 10 above W 20 above ESE
ISS Mon Oct 03/05:23 AM 3 69 57 above WSW 18 above ESE
ISS Tue Oct 04/04:26 AM 1 22 22 above E 12 above E
ISS Tue Oct 04/05:59 AM 5 43 22 above W 10 above SE
ISS Wed Oct 05/05:01 AM 2 48 48 above SE 11 above ESE
ISS Wed Oct 05/06:34 AM 5 21 11 above W 10 above SSE
ISS Thu Oct 06/04:05 AM < 1 10 10 above E 10 above E
ISS Thu Oct 06/05:37 AM 3 33 32 above SW 11 above SE
ISS Fri Oct 07/04:42 AM < 1 16 16 above SE 11 above ESE
ISS Fri Oct 07/06:14 AM 3 15 13 above WSW 11 above S
ISS Sat Oct 08/05:19 AM 1 16 16 above S 10 above SSE
-- answer removed --
If it was just a light how can you gauge that it was very high?
Starting to fade them going completely out could be caused by high cloud- cirrus then strato cirrus
Last time I was in the Caribbean I saw a quite slow moving light in the sky. In fact there were two of them. They were satellites on the same orbit (one in front of the other). When I came home I mentioned that to a friend of mine and he said that satellites are always more visable just after sunset (which would fit with the OPs account at 1930 hrs). My bet is that the OP saw some sort of satellite.
It was the traffic light that Mrs Maveric ran into yesterday, so hard that she sent it space bound and knocked out the coloured bulbs.
Question Author
Thank you for all the sensible replies.

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