Astrophotography Interupted

[Radar]

I felt I was having a good night of Astrophotography until something happened.

At the beginning of the night, I saw an awesome flash in the sky. It dragged on for about 2 seconds before fading slowly down to about mag 5, and then appeared to just cruise off back into space. I beleive this rock bounced off our atmosphere.

Then! lol, whilst I was in an awesome manual exposure of the Southern Cross I took my eye off the reticle for a second to check the location of some unwanted Cirrus cloud and something caught my eye.

At 2.20 a.m when I took my eye off my guiding eyepiece to check for Cirrus cloud, and in between Centaurus and Spica was a round object about Mag 2 - 3 which reminded me of Comet Macholz (only larger and brighter!). This object seemed to have a nucleus. I ended the astro photo I was doing and moved my telescope to shoot this object. When I put my eye back to the guiding eyepiece, the stars were all moving from left to right through the field of view. This happens when my Losmandy mount battery dies. I was thinking that this was a bad time for dead batteries until I realised that some stars (the background stars) were stationary, and the ones that were moving appeared to blink on and off (thoughts?).

What ever this object was it was moving at an incredible speed. With the naked eye and a quick glance toward the sky, someone could have mistaken it for a roundish cloud. This was no cloud though. The object was moving from Centaurus toward Spica. By the time I had packed my car up, it was 2.50am and this object was now underneath Spica. Total time viewed was about 35 minutes. I tried to photograph it, but I am not sure how the photos will turn out. It is moving in a North North Westerly direction. It also appeared to fade, though I'm hoping this was because my vehicle's interior lights ruined my dark adapted vision.

I have generated and attached a map of how this object moved.

Not many things will make me pack up and race home early from a night of astrophotography, but whatever this object was, made me want to get home asap and notify Perth Observatory (which happened to be closed tonight :ahh!: )

288

[Astro Dave]

7.30am Sydney time 20 Feb

I just got a call from ABC Queensland - people had been ringing their station 2-3am this morning with a similar description of a 'strange 'cloud. They wanted my opinion but what (?) could I say? I didn't see it.

[Astro Dave]

920am same day

Just did an interview with ABC radio Qld for their news and used your sighting description with credit, hope you don't mind Radar... first best friend.

[Astro Dave]

see this: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200702/s1851801.htm

[Mick]

Hope your photo turns out Ray. I remember reading about a sighting like that sometime back, it turned out to be some kind of rocket fuel dump. I will try and find the article when I get home from work.

[Radar]

Even though this photo looks like it has a comet or meteor, it does not. This object was round, and because it was moving from right to left in this photo, and was expanding, it has trailed giving the appearance of a comet or a meteor. By the time this object moved out of Centaurus it was as large as a full moon.

I was having a great time manually guiding this shot of the Southern Cross until this object appeared. I didn't realise I had caught so much of it on film, so I'm happy about that. I have other shots which I am currently scanning to try and get a better image. The other shots I have are only a few seconds. I don't think I have exposed them for long enough to show this object at the shape it was. This object was impossible to track on because of it's speed. I would estimate that it was moving in the opposite direction as RA x4-6.

291

[Mick]

WOW:cool: Can't wait to see how this turns out, talk about being in the right spot at the right time.

[Mick]

Hey Ray, I think you may have caught the ISS dumping something. It was in that area of the sky around that time. I'm trying to get Orbitron to work but it looks like it was over Perth around the time of your photo, Now I'm excited.
:Chessy_Smile:

[Mick]

Hey Ray, I think you may have caught the ISS dumping something. It was in that area of the sky around that time. I'm trying to get Orbitron to work but it looks like it was over Perth around the time of your photo, Now I'm excited.
:Chessy_Smile:

Got Orbitron to work, looks like the ISS was to the North at that time. Heavens above is no help it only gives sun assisted passes.

[Radar]

I wish you guys could have seen this thing. It grew and got brighter, it was amazing. Words like Supernova 2007RadarA and Comet Radar2007P1 were passing through my head. :Chessy_Smile:

[scorpius]

Shortly after there were reports of little green men wandering around Perth :hmm: Interesting to say the least Ray.

Incidently my Optus web page allocation overflowed and have now opened up a new ohot web at google to take all my pictures. Only a couple of test loads so far. But 100megs for free will be useful The Optus page is only 10 megs http://dsmithdale.googlepages.com/davidsmithdale should take y'all there

[rogerg]

Great capture Ray, you're a very lucky man to have been photographing just at the right time in the right area of the sky!

[Radar]

Shortly after there were reports of little green men wandering around Perth :hmm: Interesting to say the least Ray.


The thought of little green men did cross my mind for a second. Then when I decided that this was no extraterrestial I crawled back out from under my car and start photographing it. :Chessy_Smile:


Great capture Ray, you're a very lucky man to have been photographing just at the right time in the right area of the sky!

I agree. What are the odds? Not only am I outside to see it, but I am set up with cameras, and happen to be shooting that part of the sky when it appears.

[Radar]

It seems the mystery has been solved. This info was taken from Space Weather.com

MYSTERY SOLVED: Jon P. Boers of the USAF Space Surveillance System has tentatively identified the source of the mystery cloud, described below. It was a Breeze-M rocket body (catalogue number 28944) exploding over Australia. "Later, on the other side of the world, our RADAR saw 500+ pieces in that orbit," he says.

The Breeze-M was the upper stage of a Russian Proton rocket that left Earth in Feb. 2006 carrying an Arabsat-4A communications satellite. Shortly after launch, the Breeze-M malfunctioned, leaving the satellite in the wrong orbit and the Breeze-M looping around Earth partially full of fuel. On Feb. 19, 2007, for reasons unknown, the fuel ignited over Australia.

[Tenacious Del]

Wow! U lucky man :welldone:

[Draig]

Way to go Radar.

Your picture just made todays Astronomy Picture of the Day

:welldone: :welldone: :welldone: :welldone: :welldone:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Colin

[Radar]

Thanks Colin, I have submitted many pics to that site so to finally get on there is a buzz. :thumbsupmate:

[CanisMajorTom]

Wow, where have I been? Great stuff Ray. :thumbsupmate:

[saggitarius]

Fantastic catch!!! How is it that we know so much on earth and yet the stars are above us and we know nothing.

It's moments like this that will catch the imagination and show a whole new generation the starry beauties out there - rocket or no rocket. The pic is fantastic.

[Astro Dave]

CONGRATULATIONS Ray for making SpaceWeather. Well done!!

[beren]

:welldone: Congrats Ray, saw the pic in the West Australian while down south, what a thrill

[CanisMajorTom]

So jammy to have got this shot when you did mate. Is anyone good at maths? First you need good weather, then you need no cloud, a new moon, to be outside etc etc etc. Can someone calculate the odds of actually photographing the part of sky that this appeared in?:hmm:

[Astro Dave]

Ray, featured you in my latest newsletter

http://www.freewebs.com/astrospacenews/

[phoenix]

Another great read Astro Dave !!!
I don't know how Ray has time to post with all those interviews :duh:
Welldone again Ray :welldone:


Cheers Jason

[Radar]

Thanks Dave, read it, great stuff mate.


I don't know how Ray has time to post with all those interviews

lol, It ain't easy Jase :Chessy_Smile:

[Duncan]

G,day Dave,

Great newsletter,keep up the good work.Another one to bookmark.

Cheers,
Duncan:thumbsupmate:

[Astro Dave]

Thanks for the cool vibes Jade, Duncan, Radar

[phoenix]

Thanks for the cool vibes Jade, Duncan, Radar :lmao:

Who's jade ? lol






Cheers Jason :blink:

[Radar]

:lmao:

Who's jade ? lol
Cheers Jason :blink:

Maybe he has some secret girlfriend called Jade who loves his newsletter?
:hmm:

[phoenix]

Maybe he has some secret girlfriend called Jade who loves his newsletter?
:hmm:

Lol c'mon Jade !
Come out. come out where ever you are :blink:






Cheers Jason:pipethinker:

[Draig]

Come out. come out where ever you are :blink:

There is another possibality - Maybe your little "Flirty" face is confusing the poor man?

Cheers Colin

[Astro Dave]

Jade.... Jase ....Merely a typo there my fine ubiquitous collection of friends. Isn't our newfound friend Colin on the ball? And witty too!

[Radar]

Press the play button (especially you Dave).

http://dethroner.com/2007/01/31/clips-russian-rocket-with-directv-payload-explodes-on-sealaunch/

[Draig]

Wow that was amazing.

So lucky no one was hurt. Even from three miles any the blast would have been enormus.

Thanks Radar

Cheers Colin

[scorpius]

I read about this some time ago on Launch Space http://www.launchspace.com
Am also a subscriber to their newsletter, which comes in twice a week with all the latest snippets about what's going up, trying to go up and doesnt make it.
An interesting site for those wanting to know about space missions including the new Orion project for a four man space lab launch to the moon in a few years time.

[Radar]

Hi Dave, cool, I'll check that out.

I actually was rescanning this pic earlier tonight. I had only ever done a low res scan, so tonight I turned it into a 100 megabyte file. I think this hi res scan has brought out much finer detail. I'm not sure if you can see much of a difference here on the forums because it has to be reduced down again, but the 100 meg file looks great.

351

[Dusty]

I actually was rescanning this pic earlier tonight. I had only ever done a low res scan, so tonight I turned it into a 100 megabyte file. I think this hi res scan has brought out much finer detail.
That's fantastic Radar.

:welldone: