Location : West Terre Haute IN

Time : 9:04??-9:07pm

Date : 02/13/08 

I just wanted to share something I saw in my telescope  so that i may understand what it  was

I was looking through my Meade 70Az telescope with a 5mm eyepiece near the constellation Taurus

I was searching for the crab nebula and my sight was fixed slightly above the star 12 TAU (Hp26451)

when i seen something move downward through the scope. It was no bigger than any star in the night sky and in fact it was really small. Yet it hard a very bright red tent to it.

I followed the star as it moved downward to the horizon and counted how long it took to pass the eyepiece.about 4 seconds. after it passed Orion's belt it continued downward and then kinda turned  right and downward. after I saw it I ran inside to see what time it was and I ran a check in Stellerium to see if there were any meteors present in that area,but there wasn't. Anyways I am sorry if I am bothering this forum with non-sense but I just felt I had to report it somewhere....Please if anyone knows what it was or anything please reply.

 

object path

Zenith 

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southern horizon
 

You cannot track a meteor with a telescope because they move far too fast.

Your description sounds like a satellite to me. Go to www.heavens-above.com and register (it's free), then select your location from the database. You can then click on the option to display all satellites brighter than Mag 4.5 and see a list of the satellites coming over your location today or tonight.

You will note near the bottom of today's chart that there are several Cosmos rocket boosters in orbits similar to the one you describe. One is very close, but about an hour off. These boosters orbit every hour or so; therefore, it's possible it was one that was dimmer than the magnitude shown in the chart, or the same one but an hour later.

 Sounds pretty good to me,
I have seen satellites before and I know they are pretty bright in the sky and you can see them with the naked eye, but when I looked for the light I couldn't see it....

Anyways I am happy with your answer, I just really felt I had to report it to someone just in case it was something different.

Much Thanks

Absolutely a satellite !! I've watched them myself and you described the actions perfectly. I have a section on my site about them. http://asktheastronomer.blogspot.com/2006/08/its-bird-its-plane-what-is-that-flying.html