2005-08-05 - Omaha, NE - Light

Apparent intercept of unidentifed 'satellite' by second object.

I was outside watching night sky last night and at 22:42 I spotted what I presumed was a satellite moving in a west to east direction. Apparent magnitude about 3-4. As it reached the zenith I checked my watch to note the time so that I could check its identity on the Heavens-Above.com web site, which catalogs satellite and ISS tracks over my location on a nightly basis. As the object moved into the eastern half of the sky, a second object, moving at what appeared to be at least twice the first object's speed suddenly appeared to its south and intercepted the first object and then disappeared. The first object continued on at its original speed and eventually became to faint to follow. I looked in vain for the track of the second object, which I thought might be a second satellite, but its speed and trajectory suggests to me that it wasn't an ordinary earth satellite with which I am familiar. It may have been a meteorite, but again, the odds of a meteorite appearing to intercept the original object would seem to be way too long to be probable. As soon as the first "satellite" disappeared from view, I went into the house and looked up possible candidates crossing my area at 22:42 on a similar orbital flight path. There was only one object, a Cosmos rocket, in the sky at that time, but its trajectory was wrong.

While the transit of the original object lasted several minutes -- which is the normal passage time for an earth satellite -- the "interception" episode last perhaps a second or less.

In fact the event took place so quickly, that I have the distinct impression that there were actually several objects that intercepted the first, coming from different vectors, but I am only sure about the one "intercept" which is the one that caught my attention.

I was very excited about seeing this unusual phenomenon, made more so when I learned that there were no publically-cataloged satellites operating on this trajectory (orbit)at this time of the evening over my location in East Central Nebraska. While the first object could be an unlisted spy satellite, the second object is a complete unknown.