Fireball in Australian skies

Listening to talk back radio about an hour ago here in Melbourne, Australia
and some callers rang in to report a fireball which crossed the sky.. One
caller said that he at first thought it was a plane on fire...

I wonder if what they saw was possibly the Comos-1 solar sail coming to a
fiery end?

any thoughts ppl?

/darkfield

darkfield wrote:

Listening to talk back radio about an hour ago here in Melbourne, Australia
and some callers rang in to report a fireball which crossed the sky.. One
caller said that he at first thought it was a plane on fire...

I wonder if what they saw was possibly the Comos-1 solar sail coming to a
fiery end?

any thoughts ppl?

/darkfield

So that is how they spend my membership dollars - creating fireworks for
a few people to enjoy!
;-)

No, seriously - I hope it was not it!

--
25° 45' S
28° 12' E
GMT+2

Join the Planetary Society
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"darkfield" wrote in message
...
Listening to talk back radio about an hour ago here in Melbourne,
Australia
and some callers rang in to report a fireball which crossed the sky.. One
caller said that he at first thought it was a plane on fire...

I wonder if what they saw was possibly the Comos-1 solar sail coming to a
fiery end?

I saw something unusual from Cambridge, UK on the evening/early morning of
Monday/Tuesday. Looked to me like a satellite tumbling and close to
re-entry. Maybe connected?

"darkfield" wrote in message
...
Listening to talk back radio about an hour ago here in Melbourne,
Australia
and some callers rang in to report a fireball which crossed the sky.. One
caller said that he at first thought it was a plane on fire...

I wonder if what they saw was possibly the Comos-1 solar sail coming to a
fiery end?

any thoughts ppl?

/darkfield



I'm amazed they could see anything through all the clouds ...

Regards,
Mike Kreuzer
www.mikekreuzer.com

"darkfield" wrote in
:

Listening to talk back radio about an hour ago here in Melbourne,
Australia and some callers rang in to report a fireball which crossed
the sky.. One caller said that he at first thought it was a plane on
fire...

"about an hour ago"? Damn, but this newsreader given no clue as to
what time that might have been... however... I saw something a bit
unusual as well in the Melbourne sky, so unusual that I went to the
staff recreation room (I was at work at the time obviously) and called
a few people out to take a look.

Wednesday evening, about 9pm, from my vantage point in Broadmeadows
(northeast Melbourne) I could see 3 reddish points of light in the
sky in the melbourne direction (southeasish), moving slowly
to the left (towards the east). Perhaps magnitude 1.
The points of light appeared to be flying in formation. Hmmm.. so at
this point, I think I'll spend a few minutes and quickly photoshop a
pictu
http://www.concordeagreement.com/89-melbourne.jpg

Someone had some binoculars in their car, and so it was established
that the lights were not resolvable into any size. For all intents
and purposes they were point sources.
As I say, moving REALLY slowly, but in formation. After 10 minutes
or so, once they reached the eastnortheast they all faded out into
invisibility, with a bit of occasional flaring up again.

A few obvious possibilities:
- Aircraft.
Sure, but no (safety?) lights were seen flashing at any time as is usual
with aircraft flying over a city. They were moving far too slowly to be
flixed wing aircraft, but helicopters would be a possibility. But why
would they be reddish?

- Satellites. I've seen plenty of satellites. I've even photographed a
few, so I know that these couldnt have been in LEO since the speed was
too slow. Higher orbit perhaps. I've even seen the NOSS series of
formation flying satellites several years ago, but these were MUCH
brighter and slower than those. And anyway, are there any satellites
that are red? Checking up later on heavens-above proved fruitless.
Also, at that time of the night the eastsoutheast would be in shadow.

- Weather balloons. Balloons of some kind perhaps. The ground level
wind was slight, and from the north (opposite to the direction of
the objects), but its possible that higher level winds were in the
other direction. Some kind of flame or light would explain the redness.
I'm also aware that in Broadmeadows, there is a meteorology station
that release baloons. I've seen a few of those, but thats in the wrong
direction.

- Aliens? ha.

- Fireball. The phone caller to the radio station suggested that, but
there's no way these objects would be that. Too slow, too slow,
and up until they expired, the brightness was dead constant with no
variation of any kind.


In the end, I dont know, but I've heard stories of idiots launching
garbage bags made into simple hot air balloons, illuminated and lit
by candles or small flame devices. Apart from wind direction,
this fits the bill nicely. Even as to how the flames expired
after a while.