Hello. I have been observing satellites for several months now, but this is the first time I've seen something that I wanted to ask about. I was a little excited at the time, so my observations are probably not very accurate. At about 01:49 UTC on May 11, 2014, I spotted a rather bright object with an altitude between 40 and 60 degrees and an azimuth around 340 degrees moving at a normal speed for a satellite. Its magnitude was at least -2 and it was varying in brightness a little so I thought it might be the ISS passing above some clouds. However, when I looked at the object with my binoculars, it appeared as a large (maybe 2 arcminute) white circle surrounded by a very circular ring of fire with a similar width. The object passed to the east of the zenith and went down in the southeast. It appeared to flicker, and it may have stopped glowing after passing behind a tree, but the leaves made it hard to tell. There were no other objects nearby, and it left no trail. Is there anyway to tell what this object was? And, if so, how would I go about finding out? My location is 42.34 N 83.38 W. There are a couple airports nearby, but I've never seen a plane look anything like this. Thanks for your help. _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-lReceived on Sun May 11 2014 - 12:20:26 UTC
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