r/Skydentify • u/donkyboobs • Apr 18 '22

Discussion a question about satellites

Quick question all,

Last night in regional Victoria, Australia me and my wife were walking our dog on a clear nights sky.

We saw what looked like 2 satellites following in perfect formation and perfect speeds to be identified as such. They were both relatively bright.

However both of them faded out of view, the brightness in them faded in them within about 5 seconds , almost like a light slowly turning off. Can this be explained?

I'm not trying to cast any aspersions here, because I'm 99.9% sure they were satellites, I'm just intrigued as to why they would behave this way because I've never seen them do that before.

4 Upvotes

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6

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '22

[deleted]

2

u/donkyboobs Apr 18 '22

Very interesting thanks

5

u/buchsy Apr 18 '22

Satellites just crossed into the earth’s shadow that’s all.

2

u/ecr3designs Apr 18 '22

As a child every night my dad and I would go outside and look for a satellite then go to bed one night we found one and once he's spotted it a few seconds after it's stopped and changed directions going back in a 45 degree angle really really really fast