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8th_House_Stellium OP t1_iw9968s wrote

Reply to comment by AdoltTwittler in I saw something with a 16" scope as a kid--it was a softly glowing yellow-orange ball with two irregular asteroid-like rocks on either side of it. It was the middle of the night and I pointed my telescope straight up. Nobody has ever been able to tell me what I saw. It was too yellow to be Mars. by 8th_House_Stellium

The asteroid like rocks were very irregularly shaped, like potatoes, and they seemed to be orbiting, but not touching, the glowing object. When I was a kid, I told people I saw another solar system with it's asteroid belt, but as an adult, I know that couldn't have been what I saw because this was just a home telescope.

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AdoltTwittler t1_iw9a4lj wrote

It's tempting to suggest Jupiter and it's moons but you would not have been able to see an irregular shape of anything near Jupiter with a small telescope. Where the smaller objects as bright as the main object? How fast were the small objects moving? Could you see movement minute by minute?

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8th_House_Stellium OP t1_iw9acbj wrote

They didn't appear to be moving, and the two smaller objects were much dimmer than the glowing orange thing. The smaller objects were grayish brown.

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AdoltTwittler t1_iw9bb0c wrote

My best guess is Jupiter but I really don't know. Sorry!

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