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[Rocketman]

A friend of mine from the Lake Erie area spotted some unidentified objects while tracking satellites tonight. I've directed her here to give the details of what she saw. Maybe you guys can help identify what she saw.

Antares give some details regarding your observation.

[Antares]

Hi everyone. I'm generally not one to post in forums, but I could use a little help identifying something that I saw in the sky tonight when I was observing satellites and figured this would be the best place to come.
As Rocketman said, I'm from northwestern PA, about an hour east of Erie. I've been an amateur stargazer for my entire life and have just recently taken up satellite watching.
I went out tonight at 10:32 EST to look for ERS 1. Right before it came out of eclipse, I saw 2 objects travelling across the sky (approximately 4 magnitude) in unison. They appeared to be travelling in parallel to each other, at the same speed, in a straight line and in a north to south route. They looked like satellites, but they were moving at a speed more like meteors, and also appeared to have possibly a slight greenish tint. They were moving too fast (I think) to be satellites, and they were too in unison with each other to be shooting stars. Any ideas as to what it was I might have seen? Thanks for any and all help.

[Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe]

Antares,

Thank you for first post and registering as a member of the Chicago Astronomer family.

It sounds like you saw satellites in polar orbit. The military has these satellites that travel in a string...sometimes four at a time. It may have been this that you saw.

Meteors vary in color while traveling and sometimes leave a debris trail behind. I don't think it was meteors that you saw by your description.

When the solar sail is deployed, it will be a great sight to see the sunlight reflected off the panels. Should be a bright object in our skies!... ;D

Thanks for your inquiry and hope to see you in the forum often.

[Rocketman]

We first discussed the possibilty that it was military satellites like NOSS that fly in formation. However having not seen this, and only relying on her description leads me to believe that it wasn't satellites. I will admit though that it could have been, but I think the velocity was too great. The meteors I've seen have mostly been fast, and by themselves.

Unfortunately the TLE data for such satellites is not available to the public. I don't know exactly why that is, but it is so. Seems like they would have put them in a higher orbit out of reach of the naked eye if it's that big of a deal.

[timothy]

Antares,
Hi, This is the way I see it. You've been in astronomy long enough to have a good feel of things. I think you should go with your gut feeling on this one. You saw two meteors or small space junk come in at the same time.