Oddity in the sky April 12, 2023

[Donovan]

Last evening between 10:30 p.m. and 11:00 pm MST,  I observed (naked eye)  what I would normally call an iridium  satellite (you know, the ones that flash every 30 seconds or so as they move across the sky).  However, this one stayed in the same basic location for a full 30 minutes.  I timed the flashes at 21 seconds between flashes.  Is there anyone on this forum that might help me understand what I saw?   I am completely new to astronomy forums so excuse me if I haven't done things correctly. 

[TerryMcK]

Hello Donovan and welcome to the forum. No I'm afraid not.

As we don't know where you are and which direction you were looking it is not easy to explain what you saw.

It may have been a geostationary satellite which was catching the sun and when the sun set relative to the satellite it disappeared from view. Or maybe it may have even been an aircraft such as a helicopter but that does not explain the 21 second delay between flashes.

 

The original Iridium satellites (not many left now) don't flash they leave a flare visible from the ground, reflecting the sunlight to the area of an observer at a fixed position for a few seconds. They look like this

 

 

Best of luck.

[Donovan]

Thank you so much for your explanation.  I believe now that is indeed  a geostationary satellite such as a weather, GPS, or something similar.  I am in northeastern Utah in a little town called Manila. The challenge for me was not understanding that some satellites travel with the earth so are moving at the same speed.

I was looking southwest and the satellite appeared just below LEO's hind legs.  I see a lot of satellites, especially from now until the late fall in our area.  There are only 900 people in our county so we have some very dark nights which is fantastic for stargazing.