barnstable hbr/sandy neck

[blueYak]

Kayaked out sat night at 1130pm and made the low tide rounds. Lots of small fish everywhere in the shallows eating shrimp. I had to switch away from my normal night fly (big black deciever) as the fish wouldn't touch it. Caught a few small fish on a a tiny clouser. SLOW for a night trip.
A tuna stick boat went out to the outermost cans at the mouth of the harbor and stayed there till first light. He must have been catching cause he didn't move for 4 hours.
Saw a lot of shooting stars so was looking skyward alot after the moon set. Saw something else interesting in the sky: first i noticed a really bright star, bright enough to reflect off the water. As i watch it i notice it is moving slowly. over the course of a minute?, it gradually got dimmer and dimmer till it disapeared. Saw a similar one (a meteor?) a few minutes later that wasn't as bright. Seemed like something that was entering the atmosphere tangetally and not quite getting sucked in by gravity. BTW, they were traveling north, high in the southeast sky.
Then my sky gazing was cut short when a boat with a bright spot light was motoring all around ocasionally beaming on me. Looked like the were looking for something, but didn't come close enough to ask me anything. There was an abandoned boat, 18' maybe on the sandbar near me. Kind of odd that rods were in the holders. If my boat didn't start, i would have stowed the gear. Hope everyone is ok, as the prev mentioned boat seemed to be looking all around.
Good night all in all. Any astronomers in the crowd who can tell me what i saw?

Jay

[Bob Parsons]

The stick boat might have been catching bluefish, Lot of small bluefish have been in that part of the harbor. Tuna love bluefish.

the "star" that moved across the sky, might have been the international space station, depending on the time.

[Flying Scotsman]

Thae "stars" may also have been satellites.
Cheers!
TFS

[Howie]

I'm with Bob, while you can see satellites all of the time, generally the ISS is the only thing bright enough to throw a reflection.

[blueYak]

Went to NASA's web site - ISS was supposed to pass over the area (boston and hartford) 920pm sat night:

DATE/TIME (MIN) (DEG) (DEG-DIR) (DEG-DIR)

ISS Fri Jul 15/08:56 PM 3 37 35 above N 11 above E
ISS Fri Jul 15/10:29 PM 1 21 13 above W 21 above WSW
ISS Sat Jul 16/09:22 PM 2 69 52 above W 20 above SE
ISS Sun Jul 17/09:48 PM 2 19 14 above W 17 above SSW
ISS Tue Jul 19/09:07 PM 3 17 15 above WSW 11 above S

what i saw occured at 3:20 AM. above chart is local time.

Would the iss be bright enough to really draw attention to it. What i saw was as bright as the north star.

jay

[capescrod]

I remember seeing the Mir long ago - It was crazy how bright and clear it was and it was really trucking accross the sky-

[fishingdan]

Yes, it is really bright on a clear night. I remember seeing it once when the shuttle was docked on it. It was brighter than anything else in the sky that night.

[Bob Parsons]

Hit Barnstable for a few hours on the out going this afternoon. Started with a schoolie on the first cast as the boat started to drift over horseshoe shoal. Thought great it's finally going to fish well. But alas it was not to be. No further hits after a couple more drifts. Even my lobster pots are doing squat. Drifted on the outside towards bass hole, Had a couple hits on a large white deceiver but nothing landed. Even the micro fish along the edge the sand bar were reluctant to bite.

[sossman]

It is also possible you saw one of the Iridium comm sattelites. it is a constellation of I think 44 birds and if they catch the sun just right they can make quite a flash. Not sure ho long it lasts. Also, just possibly a plan with its landing lights on, though I would think you would have heard it.