Not sure but this may help you find what you are looking for?

That would have helped if I could remember the exact date/time. I just remember I was in elementary school, and it was the cold time of the year (January, probably) and close to midnight.

Hello u/8th_House_Stellium, your submission "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." has been removed from r/space because:

• Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.

Hello u/8th_House_Stellium, your submission "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." has been removed from r/space because:

• Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.

I am sure I can't provide you with any information on what you saw but I am curious. Can you describe the asteroid like rocks more? Did they appear to be attached to the glowing object? How did they appear different from the glowing object?

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.

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?

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.

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