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(meteorobs) Re: Tri-satellite formation..
This inquiry was sent to the list:
> my husband and I both observed three points of light in an
> elongated triangle moving quite fast across the western
> sky. [...]
>
> Can anyone shed some light on what we may have seen?
Several have mentioned the NOSS satellites. From what I've
read, there have been two programs of triangle formations;
I'll call them "old" and "new". The old ones are faint and
almost always require skilled use of a telescope to be
observed. The new ones are observed at one-power by
accident from time to time and in such a case almost always
make a great impression. Meteor observers -- ahem,
meteoricists (why not "meteorists"?) -- might see them by
accident more than any other group due to watching dark
skies using "eyes only".
There are some articles about them on a couple of Web sites.
On these sites, the old ones are called "NOSS", and the new
ones are called "SB-WASS" (Navy; SB-WASS US Air Force is
something else):
Federation of American Scientists:
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/sigint/
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/surveill/noss.htm
http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/surveill/sbwass_n.htm
Dave's Space page:
http://users.ox.acdot uk/~daveh/Space/Military/
(choose "Surveillance")
Clear and dark nights--
Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexasdot edu - Austin, Texas, USA
http://wwwvms.utexasdot edu/~ecannon/meteorlinks.html
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