SIGHTING: HYVINKÄÄ (FINLAND)

Witness Testimony

""Unusual" satellites seen over the town of Hyvinkää, FinlandAstronomy is my hobby and I´m quite familiar with ordinary events in the night sky. However, on the stated hour I witnessed something that I couldn´t immediately explain. It was dark outside and the stars were shining. Planet Mars ((NUFORC Note: Venus is in the western sky, at present. PD)) was visible near the western horizon I was walking with my dog when I noticed an ordinary looking satellite (a spot of light) high in the Southwestern sky. It was visible just out of the right side of what astronomers of Northern hemisphere would call the Pegasi Square and it was almost as bright as the stars of the Square. The satellite was moving slowly towards southeast and also gradually fading away as satellites usually seem to do. Well, before the satellite was completely out of sight I noticed something strange: the satellite was closely (less than 2 degrees behind) followed by another, very faint satellite. They were visible together for about 15 seconds before fading away and they were moving into exactly same direction maintaining the visible <2 degree distance. The objects behaved just like ordinary satellites. I´ve heard of NOSS satellites and I know that they usually travel in a row or in a triangle, but I´ve never actually witnessed them. This could be my first witness, but I´ve always thought that the visible distance of these satellites would be greater (more like 15 degrees or so).About 8 minues after the satellites had disappeared I noticed an extremely bright satellite just above the Ursa Major heading north. It was brighter than Mars when I noticed it. Then it faded a little but brightened again for some seconds before fading out of sight. This again was nothing out of the ordinary. It was probably one of Iridium satellites that usually appear like that. I´m much more interested in finding out what the first sighting was.((NUFORC Note: We received a similar report on September 28, of two satellites in "tandem" flight, but we do not know which satellites they are. The fact that the two objects quickly faded from the observers' sight, as they flew to the east, is suggestive of satellites, as they fly into the Earth's shadow. To the best of our knowledge, what are thought to be the U. S. Navy's "NOSS" satellites always appear as a "triplet" of satellites. PD))"