Mystery object in southern sky on Friday Night

A friend of mine called from the Pacific Northwest saying that he and
his family saw an object in the south unlike anything he's seen before.
He saw it in the late evening, around 10pm.

He described it as a series of alternating colored lights, like a
plane, but fixed in the sky. They watched it for about an hour,
inspected it with a small telescope and took pictures with a long
telephoto.

Brightness was described as near Venus brightness. He didn't think it
was as bright, his son thought it was brighter.

Position was about 30 degrees up from the horizon, nearly due south,
maybe 10 degrees west. As noted, it was at a fixed position relative to
the stars and moved with the sky. He said it went behind his treeline
at about 11-12

He said it was not resolved in any of the optics.

I tried to determine if it was just atmospheric twinkling. He said the
rest of the stars visible that night were still and showed nothing like
that affect.

Anybody have any ideas as to what this was?

Thanks,
Ted

"tdi" wrote in message ...
A friend of mine called from the Pacific Northwest saying that he and
his family saw an object in the south unlike anything he's seen before.
He saw it in the late evening, around 10pm.

He described it as a series of alternating colored lights, like a
plane, but fixed in the sky. They watched it for about an hour,
inspected it with a small telescope and took pictures with a long
telephoto.

post the pictures, that will help
--
md

"tdi" wrote in message ...
A friend of mine called from the Pacific Northwest saying that he and
his family saw an object in the south unlike anything he's seen before.
He saw it in the late evening, around 10pm.

He described it as a series of alternating colored lights, like a
plane, but fixed in the sky. They watched it for about an hour,
inspected it with a small telescope and took pictures with a long
telephoto.

post the pictures, that will help
--
md

"tdi" wrote in news:cfnakd$gs0
@odak26.prod.google.com:

A friend of mine called from the Pacific Northwest saying that he and
his family saw an object in the south unlike anything he's seen before.
He saw it in the late evening, around 10pm.

He described it as a series of alternating colored lights, like a
plane, but fixed in the sky. They watched it for about an hour,
inspected it with a small telescope and took pictures with a long
telephoto.

Brightness was described as near Venus brightness. He didn't think it
was as bright, his son thought it was brighter.

Position was about 30 degrees up from the horizon, nearly due south,
maybe 10 degrees west. As noted, it was at a fixed position relative to
the stars and moved with the sky. He said it went behind his treeline
at about 11-12

He said it was not resolved in any of the optics.

I tried to determine if it was just atmospheric twinkling. He said the
rest of the stars visible that night were still and showed nothing like
that affect.

Anybody have any ideas as to what this was?

Do you have something more specific than "south?" How about a
constellation? The brigtest star in the southern sky would be Antares in
Scorpius, which would certainly twinkle a lot as it got lower and sets SSW
at the latitude of Portland, Oregon. It would have been at an altitude of
about 13 degrees at 22:00 PDT.

"tdi" wrote in news:cfnakd$gs0
@odak26.prod.google.com:

A friend of mine called from the Pacific Northwest saying that he and
his family saw an object in the south unlike anything he's seen before.
He saw it in the late evening, around 10pm.

He described it as a series of alternating colored lights, like a
plane, but fixed in the sky. They watched it for about an hour,
inspected it with a small telescope and took pictures with a long
telephoto.

Brightness was described as near Venus brightness. He didn't think it
was as bright, his son thought it was brighter.

Position was about 30 degrees up from the horizon, nearly due south,
maybe 10 degrees west. As noted, it was at a fixed position relative to
the stars and moved with the sky. He said it went behind his treeline
at about 11-12

He said it was not resolved in any of the optics.

I tried to determine if it was just atmospheric twinkling. He said the
rest of the stars visible that night were still and showed nothing like
that affect.

Anybody have any ideas as to what this was?

Do you have something more specific than "south?" How about a
constellation? The brigtest star in the southern sky would be Antares in
Scorpius, which would certainly twinkle a lot as it got lower and sets SSW
at the latitude of Portland, Oregon. It would have been at an altitude of
about 13 degrees at 22:00 PDT.

A weather balloon obviously, at least that's what the Air Force at
Roswell reported.... ;-)

Well, until someone comes up with an identification, he and his family
were looking at a UFO.

Larry Stedman
Vestal

"tdi" wrote in message ...

A friend of mine called from the Pacific Northwest saying that he and
his family saw an object in the south unlike anything he's seen before.
He saw it in the late evening, around 10pm.

He described it as a series of alternating colored lights, like a
plane, but fixed in the sky.

There's no way for me to be sure, but it was probably Antares (in
Scorpius) scintillating in heavy atmospheric turbulence. I seldom see
Antares put on such a show from my usual vantage point, but Capella
and Arcturus often do.

Brightness was described as near Venus brightness. He didn't think it
was as bright, his son thought it was brighter.

Stars tend to seem brighter when they're twinkling this strongly, for
some reason--probably because their light is spread more widely, yet
not all at once, giving us the impression that they're "larger" and
therefore brighter (just a wild guess).

Position was about 30 degrees up from the horizon, nearly due south,
maybe 10 degrees west. As noted, it was at a fixed position relative to
the stars and moved with the sky. He said it went behind his treeline
at about 11-12

Is your friend familiar with the constellations? Scorpius is one of
the easiest to recognize, of course.

I tried to determine if it was just atmospheric twinkling. He said the
rest of the stars visible that night were still and showed nothing like
that affect.

The "colored lights" effect of extreme twinkling is really only
apparent with the brightest stars, such as Antares.


- Robert Cook

On 15 Aug 2004 02:33:01 -0700, "tdi" wrote:

Position was about 30 degrees up from the horizon, nearly due south,
maybe 10 degrees west. As noted, it was at a fixed position relative to
the stars and moved with the sky. He said it went behind his treeline
at about 11-12

Antares.


Paul Below
Battle Point Astronomical Association
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
http://bainbridgeisland.org/ritchieobs/

Larry Stedman wrote in news:stedman-
:

A weather balloon obviously, at least that's what the Air Force at
Roswell reported.... ;-)

Well, until someone comes up with an identification, he and his family
were looking at a UFO.

I disagree. He clearly stated that the object was NOT _flying_ but "it was
at a fixed position relative to the stars and moved with the sky."
Therefore it was simply a UO.

On Sun, 15 Aug 2004 23:32:43 GMT, Paul Below
wrote:

On 15 Aug 2004 02:33:01 -0700, "tdi" wrote:

Position was about 30 degrees up from the horizon, nearly due south,
maybe 10 degrees west. As noted, it was at a fixed position relative to
the stars and moved with the sky. He said it went behind his treeline
at about 11-12

Antares.



Certainly a star. Peoples descriptions of sky phenomes are usually
skewed. I have seen bright stars lower in the sky that change color
due to diffraction and a turbulent atmosphere.