Was a comet visable tonight?

Can anyone confirm a comet in the SW sky relative to NY State around 9
PM EST
Nebulous object with very faint tail observed from 9PM to around
9:30PM in SW sky starting at about 45deg moving very slowly to about
my zenith 90 deg. Seemed to dissipate as the sighting went on. Moved
very slowly in relation to the stars.

Tried unsuccessfully to observe through Telescope, but was able to
observe using 10X50 binoculars.

I guess it would help if I said where I observed it from

Decimal Degrees Deg:Min:Sec
Lat: 43.083031 43: 04:58.912N
Lon: -077.932843 77: 55:58.235W







On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 01:58:00 GMT, ed wrote:

Can anyone confirm a comet in the SW sky relative to NY State around 9
PM EST
Nebulous object with very faint tail observed from 9PM to around
9:30PM in SW sky starting at about 45deg moving very slowly to about
my zenith 90 deg. Seemed to dissipate as the sighting went on. Moved
very slowly in relation to the stars.

Tried unsuccessfully to observe through Telescope, but was able to
observe using 10X50 binoculars.

--
Curtis Croulet
Temecula, California
33° 27' 59"N, 117° 05' 53"W

"ed" wrote in message
...
Can anyone confirm a comet in the SW sky relative to NY State around 9
PM EST
Nebulous object with very faint tail observed from 9PM to around
9:30PM in SW sky starting at about 45deg moving very slowly to about
my zenith 90 deg. Seemed to dissipate as the sighting went on. Moved
very slowly in relation to the stars.

Tried unsuccessfully to observe through Telescope, but was able to
observe using 10X50 binoculars.

Comets don't just appear and disappear in a few minutes. Most are
observable for weeks or months, although a telescope may be necessary most
of the time for most of them.
--
Curtis Croulet
Temecula, California
33° 27' 59"N, 117° 05' 53"W

OK any ideas what I might have seen?
total viewing time less than 45 min.



On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 19:29:09 -0700, "Curtis Croulet"
wrote:

Comets don't just appear and disappear in a few minutes. Most are
observable for weeks or months, although a telescope may be necessary most
of the time for most of them.

I saw the same thing .... Here is what I observed:

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 abbeard 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 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??

BTW my location is 43° 14' N 75° 25' W

"Lou" wrote in message
...
I saw the same thing .... Here is what I observed:

I was leaving my parents house around 9pm
[snip]

Try posting to news:sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe; they're pretty
knowledgeable about space launches, fuel dumps, etc.

I saw the same thing from Ottawa, same time. I did a crummy drawing on the
computer, I posted a little while ago. It was very strange looking. I was
able to get my scope on it, seemed to be moving fairly fast towards the
zenith.

Stephen S.

"ed" wrote in message
...
Can anyone confirm a comet in the SW sky relative to NY State around 9
PM EST
Nebulous object with very faint tail observed from 9PM to around
9:30PM in SW sky starting at about 45deg moving very slowly to about
my zenith 90 deg. Seemed to dissipate as the sighting went on. Moved
very slowly in relation to the stars.

Tried unsuccessfully to observe through Telescope, but was able to
observe using 10X50 binoculars.

Any news about the sighting yet?

K-

Steve Schryburt wrote:

I saw the same thing from Ottawa, same time. I did a crummy drawing on the
computer, I posted a little while ago. It was very strange looking. I was
able to get my scope on it, seemed to be moving fairly fast towards the
zenith.

Stephen S.

"ed" wrote in message
...
Can anyone confirm a comet in the SW sky relative to NY State around 9
PM EST
Nebulous object with very faint tail observed from 9PM to around
9:30PM in SW sky starting at about 45deg moving very slowly to about
my zenith 90 deg. Seemed to dissipate as the sighting went on. Moved
very slowly in relation to the stars.

Tried unsuccessfully to observe through Telescope, but was able to
observe using 10X50 binoculars.

"ed" wrote in message
...
Can anyone confirm a comet in the SW sky relative to NY State around 9
PM EST
Nebulous object with very faint tail observed from 9PM to around
9:30PM in SW sky starting at about 45deg moving very slowly to about
my zenith 90 deg. Seemed to dissipate as the sighting went on. Moved
very slowly in relation to the stars.

Tried unsuccessfully to observe through Telescope, but was able to
observe using 10X50 binoculars.

From sci.astro.amateur:

The bright cloud seen on 2004 Sep 01 beginning near 01:00 UTC (Aug 31 at
21:00 EDT), was related the launch of an Atlas 2AS rocket, a couple of hours
earlier from Cape Canaveral. USSTRATCOM (US Strategic Command) has named the
secret NRO payload (likely a communications satellite) USA 179. Its
catalogue number is 28384, and its International Designation is 2004-034A.
The Centaur upper stage is 28385 / 2004-034A.

Spaceflight Now has the ground track, which crossed North America.

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