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Finally a very good seeing night in New Jersey produced one of the most interesting observations I've made in decades. I locked on to M11 with my cpc11 at 155x and began tracking. The moment I relaxed my eye on to the subject I noticed a moving point of light, very close in size and brightness to the central 3 stars that form an equilateral triangle at the core of the nebula. It was first seen right in the center of the triangle and began to move out from it indicating a perfectly horizontal trajectory. As soon as this point of light moved out of the field it was followed by a similar second point of light tracing it's predecessor's path. I did not see either of them enter the nebula and pass into the triangle, just exiting. Do satellites orbit in close tandem? It was a rare coincidence in celestial proximities and one that makes this hobby so filled with unusual surprises and wow factor rich!

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They do if they are in geosynchronous orbit. M11 is at a declination of around -6 degrees, which is within a band of sky where you may see a few of the common communications satellites appear. The region around the Orion Nebula is also a location of frequent sightings of the geostationary "birds". If you turn your tracking off for a bit, the satellites will seem somewhat fixed in your field while the stars continue to drift. Clear skies to you.

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David W. Knisely
Hyde Memorial Observatory
http://www.hydeobservatory.info
Prairie Astronomy Club
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org

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