| |
Main
Date: 27 Oct 2006 14:47:55
From: gnosticbeast
Subject: Curious FMO in California
|
Hi all,
I was camping at Lake Chabot in California. At about 8pm on Thursday,
26, 2006 I was star-gazing when I observed a fast moving object
with my naked eye. I object looked exactly like the other stars in the
southern sky. It had the same apparent luminosity and same apparent
size. This object moved toward the west at a fairly quick rate of
speed. There were no streaks or trails as one would expect from a
"shooting star", and the object did not maintain the same trajectory
before fading out of view. It maneuvered up and down about and inch in
our field of vision, which would have been quite a distance if this
object was in the upper atmostphere. It was not a plane and not a
shooting star. As I said, it looked like a normal star in the sky just
started moving, quickly and with at least three changes in trajectory.
Does anyone know what this could have been? My girlfriend I are
extremely curious.
Thanks.
Paul
|
|
| |
Date: 29 Oct 2006 16:57:58
From: TW
Subject: Re: Curious FMO in California
|
Could have been an Iridium satellite. These catch the Sun and reflect an
often brilliant point of light to a ground-based observer, catching the
general populace by surprise.
Such Iridium 'flares' can be calculated. Visit the Heavens Above website for
an excellent preview of upcoming flares from your location.
Regards
Tony Williams
"gnosticbeast" <hoor_pa_kraat@comcast.net > wrote in message
news:1161985675.292523.273650@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
> Hi all,
>
> I was camping at Lake Chabot in California. At about 8pm on Thursday,
> 26, 2006 I was star-gazing when I observed a fast moving object
> with my naked eye. I object looked exactly like the other stars in the
> southern sky. It had the same apparent luminosity and same apparent
> size. This object moved toward the west at a fairly quick rate of
> speed. There were no streaks or trails as one would expect from a
> "shooting star", and the object did not maintain the same trajectory
> before fading out of view. It maneuvered up and down about and inch in
> our field of vision, which would have been quite a distance if this
> object was in the upper atmostphere. It was not a plane and not a
> shooting star. As I said, it looked like a normal star in the sky just
> started moving, quickly and with at least three changes in trajectory.
> Does anyone know what this could have been? My girlfriend I are
> extremely curious.
>
> Thanks.
> Paul
>
|
| | |
Date: 29 Oct 2006 11:37:19
From: SkySea
Subject: Re: Curious FMO in California
|
Odd for a satellite that it moved towards the west. It takes great
energy to counteract the eastward velocity produced by the earth's
rotation at launch, with rare benefit. Hence, satellites typically go
eastward, with the occasional polar satellite for global coverages.
At 8PM, was there some twilight (Sun was pretty far down, but the
object was also high up)? City light? Moonlight (crescent was just
setting).
I'm not sure what "rapidly" means, but if it appeared perhaps twice as
fast as you'd typically see an airplane appear to move (angular
velocity), I'd guess you saw a whitish bird (swan, goose, heron, gull
[but that's rather far inland], osprey,...) flying high up. High
enough not to be seeing shape or flapping.
>"gnosticbeast" <hoor_pa_kraat@comcast.net> wrote
> Hi all,
>
> I was camping at Lake Chabot in California. At about 8pm on Thursday,
> 26, 2006 I was star-gazing when I observed a fast moving object
> with my naked eye. I object looked exactly like the other stars in the
> southern sky. It had the same apparent luminosity and same apparent
> size. This object moved toward the west at a fairly quick rate of
> speed.
=============
- Dale Gombert (SkySea at aol.com)
122.38W, 47.58N, W. Seattle, WA
http://flavorj.com/~skysea
|
| |
Date: 29 Oct 2006 16:24:04
From: gnosticbeast
Subject: Re: Curious FMO in California
|
SkySea wrote:
> Odd for a satellite that it moved towards the west. It takes great
> energy to counteract the eastward velocity produced by the earth's
> rotation at launch, with rare benefit. Hence, satellites typically go
> eastward, with the occasional polar satellite for global coverages.
My apologiles, the object was traveling from West to East. My current
thought is that it most likey was Iridium 55, but according to
Heavens-above.com I was observing about an hour later than the
predicted visibility.
> At 8PM, was there some twilight (Sun was pretty far down, but the
> object was also high up)? City light? Moonlight (crescent was just
> setting).
There was minimal twighlit. No city lights and minor lunar illumination
(crecent moon was setting in the west.)
> I'm not sure what "rapidly" means, but if it appeared perhaps twice as
> fast as you'd typically see an airplane appear to move (angular
> velocity), I'd guess you saw a whitish bird (swan, goose, heron, gull
> [but that's rather far inland], osprey,...) flying high up. High
> enough not to be seeing shape or flapping.
Again, no chance of it being a bird or plane or other common object. It
looked exactly like an average star- same apparent luminosity and
apparent size. But it moved, and that's what caught our eye, it looked
as if a star was moving. Judging from the size and speed of the
object, I ruled out at once a plane or a bird. It was not in the
atmosphere as there was no indication of friction causing trails or
anything else indicating it was descending toward earth.
Thanks everyone for you input, I will chalk this one up to a sattelite
observation. This is the first time I've seen anything like this, and
I'm very pleasantly suprised at the response I received on this forum.
|
|
