A Space & astronomy forum. SpaceBanter.com

Go Back   Home » SpaceBanter.com forum » Astronomy and Astrophysics » Satellites
Site Map Home Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Barium release or satellite boost?



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old September 1st 04, 02:46 AM
Jack L. Metcalfe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Barium release or satellite boost?

Around 8:57 PM EDT, 15 degrees due east from Arcturus I saw a fairly
bright cloud-like glow drifting slowly northeast. It wasn't a cloud,
it was perfectly clear otherwise. The glow had a spiked point that
stayed farly much intact until I lost it after Moonrise. It was about
30' in size when first observed & expanded to about 1 degree before
fading.

This was observed from Central Kentucky around 37 34 North & 84 36
West. Did anybody else catch this?

Jack Metcalfe
  #2  
Old September 1st 04, 03:10 AM
Trevor Oke
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Jack L. Metcalfe wrote:

Around 8:57 PM EDT, 15 degrees due east from Arcturus I saw a fairly
bright cloud-like glow drifting slowly northeast. It wasn't a cloud,
it was perfectly clear otherwise. The glow had a spiked point that
stayed farly much intact until I lost it after Moonrise. It was about
30' in size when first observed & expanded to about 1 degree before
fading.

This was observed from Central Kentucky around 37 34 North & 84 36
West. Did anybody else catch this?



Yep - I saw it from my balcony in Toronto (43 40 N, 79 24 E) at
approximately the same time. Due west of the city, and approximately 30
degrees above the horizon. I couldn't see what it was near due to the light
polution. It was moving directly overhead - west to east - over a period of
about 10 minutes.

From this angle it looked like a fairly bright horizontal line surrounded
by a diffuse scatter. It looked like the scatter was more pronounced on the
right (north) and that there was a point to the south.


Jack Metcalfe


Trevor Oke
  #3  
Old September 1st 04, 04:14 AM
Lou
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Here is what I observed tonight (8/31/04): Location: upstate NY 43° 14' N
75° 25' W I was leaving my parents house around 9pm, when I just happen to
look up and noticed a nebulous object in the wSW sky about 40-50degrees up.
I quickly got out the telescope and WAS able to view it. (The telescope is
an 8" f/4 reflector, eyepiece used was a 25mm). Did not spend to much time
setting up the scope(has an equitorial mount so it should have been
alighned), just sent it on a semi level surface and looked for it, so I
cannot give you any sort of cooridinates. The object was in fact TWO objects
moving quite rapidly(in my opinion) at first in relation to the stars. The
objects were moving in unison(and appeared to have quite a large distance
between them. In the eypiece if I placed the first object on the lower edge
if the view, the second would be about 3/4's of the way up and slightly to
one side and the begingings of the tail would be about 9/10 up from the
bottom), and the tail trailed the second object and dissipated tward the
south. the objects were quite bright at first, and triled off in intensity
as the sighting went on. The appeard to be moving tward the area between
cassiopeia and pegasus. I was able to observe the objects in the telescope
for about 45 minutes before one was to faint to see (the one closest to the
tail), and continued viewing the remaining one in till it to became to fain
to observe somewhere around the constellation Draco's Etamin. (I could be
wrong on the constelations it was hard to tell) I wish I had a digital
camera setup for my scope to photograph it. The tail faided from view about
30-40 minutes into the sighting, and the objects slowed significantly
(relative to the stars) as time passed. Any one have any thoughts on what it
was??


  #4  
Old September 1st 04, 04:34 AM
Ted Molczan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Jack L. Metcalfe" wrote in message
...
Around 8:57 PM EDT, 15 degrees due east from Arcturus I saw a fairly
bright cloud-like glow drifting slowly northeast. It wasn't a cloud,
it was perfectly clear otherwise. The glow had a spiked point that
stayed farly much intact until I lost it after Moonrise. It was about
30' in size when first observed & expanded to about 1 degree before
fading.

This was observed from Central Kentucky around 37 34 North & 84 36
West. Did anybody else catch this?


This was related to this evening's launch of NROL-1 from Cape Canaveral, on
an Atlas 2AS rocket. Spaceflight Now has the ground track:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/...0824track.html

The cloud visible over North America was the result of the Centaur's venting
of excess propellant.

I posted my observation report to SeeSat-L:

http://satobs.org/seesat/Aug-2004/0341.html

As have several other observers:

http://satobs.org/seesat/Aug-2004/0335.html

http://satobs.org/seesat/Aug-2004/0336.html

http://satobs.org/seesat/Aug-2004/0339.html

Ted Molczan


  #5  
Old September 1st 04, 05:00 AM
Jordan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

The generated charts by www.heavens-above.com showed that they were the
Cosmos 660 rocket and the Okean O rocket 31 seconds behind and travelling
within a few degrees of each other.

I also coincidently caught this strange very slowly moving bright nebulosity
in NYC, grabbed my binoculars and followed it for a while. It had a central
stalk with curved forward sweeping wings on top and back sweeping curved
wings on the bottom. It also flashed at the top(?) end. I checked Heavens
Above and found 2 orbiting rockets that had close starting trajectories in
time and coordinates. I tracked the object through Draco near Etamin as you
indicated. I had noticed that the shape changed, now looking similar to a
fanning comet tail. It remained in the Draco head area and continues to
fade. Your report with the telescope through the eyepiece confirms that it
was two objects. I had taken my eye off it occasionally and has not seen it
split. That explains the change in shape.


"Lou" wrote in message
...
Here is what I observed tonight (8/31/04): Location: upstate NY 43° 14' N
75° 25' W I was leaving my parents house around 9pm, when I just happen to
look up and noticed a nebulous object in the wSW sky about 40-50degrees

up.
I quickly got out the telescope and WAS able to view it. (The telescope is
an 8" f/4 reflector, eyepiece used was a 25mm). Did not spend to much time
setting up the scope(has an equitorial mount so it should have been
alighned), just sent it on a semi level surface and looked for it, so I
cannot give you any sort of cooridinates. The object was in fact TWO

objects
moving quite rapidly(in my opinion) at first in relation to the stars. The
objects were moving in unison(and appeared to have quite a large distance
between them. In the eypiece if I placed the first object on the lower

edge
if the view, the second would be about 3/4's of the way up and slightly to
one side and the begingings of the tail would be about 9/10 up from the
bottom), and the tail trailed the second object and dissipated tward the
south. the objects were quite bright at first, and triled off in intensity
as the sighting went on. The appeard to be moving tward the area between
cassiopeia and pegasus. I was able to observe the objects in the telescope
for about 45 minutes before one was to faint to see (the one closest to

the
tail), and continued viewing the remaining one in till it to became to

fain
to observe somewhere around the constellation Draco's Etamin. (I could be
wrong on the constelations it was hard to tell) I wish I had a digital
camera setup for my scope to photograph it. The tail faided from view

about
30-40 minutes into the sighting, and the objects slowed significantly
(relative to the stars) as time passed. Any one have any thoughts on what

it
was??




  #6  
Old September 1st 04, 02:28 PM
Jordan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Ted,

That makes more sense than the rocket remnants I pointed to.

Thanks

"Ted Molczan" wrote in message
.cable.rogers.com...
"Jack L. Metcalfe" wrote in message
...
Around 8:57 PM EDT, 15 degrees due east from Arcturus I saw a fairly
bright cloud-like glow drifting slowly northeast. It wasn't a cloud,
it was perfectly clear otherwise. The glow had a spiked point that
stayed farly much intact until I lost it after Moonrise. It was about
30' in size when first observed & expanded to about 1 degree before
fading.

This was observed from Central Kentucky around 37 34 North & 84 36
West. Did anybody else catch this?


This was related to this evening's launch of NROL-1 from Cape Canaveral,

on
an Atlas 2AS rocket. Spaceflight Now has the ground track:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/...0824track.html

The cloud visible over North America was the result of the Centaur's

venting
of excess propellant.

I posted my observation report to SeeSat-L:

http://satobs.org/seesat/Aug-2004/0341.html

As have several other observers:

http://satobs.org/seesat/Aug-2004/0335.html

http://satobs.org/seesat/Aug-2004/0336.html

http://satobs.org/seesat/Aug-2004/0339.html

Ted Molczan




 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Maybe you sci.astro.amateur and sci.astro readers can explain this Sam Wormley Astronomy Misc 16 July 2nd 04 10:17 PM
Maybe you sci.astro.amateur and sci.astro readers can explain this pearl Amateur Astronomy 4 July 1st 04 01:49 AM
Satellite Tracking Pete UK Astronomy 0 June 21st 04 09:11 PM
UK Will Build First Satellite To Study Wind From Space Ron Baalke Misc 0 November 20th 03 05:05 PM
Successful Launch for Boeing-Built Galaxy XIII/Horizons-1 Satellite Gene Nygaard Policy 0 October 6th 03 05:24 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 10:44 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 SpaceBanter.com.
The comments are property of their posters.