Rocket Burn(?) This Evening

[bkm2304]

Hi all,

I was out taking photos of the sky tonight when at about 7.30pm I saw what looked like a bright ball of fog about halfway between Yed Posterior and Zeta Ophiuchi. It got very bright and I started snapping away. After a few minutes I got the 16" Dob out and it revealed what looked like a huge rocket burn. Two engines - at least that's what the plumes looked like - and a conical shaped stream of gas leading up to what I assume was the rocket end. It was slowly moving Easterly and then slowed down to fade after about 30 minutes. By 8.15pm it was barely visible as a mist in the 16".

Anyone know what this was?

Cheers

Richard

[h0ughy]

great capture well done

[big_dav_2001]

Awesome!!

I posted about this earlier tonight here (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=1016785#post101678 5), Sydney Observatory posted on Facebook asking for photos...

No idea what it was, but great to see someone got pics of it...

Davin

[acropolite]

We saw a similar event in 2010 at Astrofest, that was a rocket stage expelling fuel, I expect there will be an announcement from Nasa if it was.

[Mark_Heli]

Hi Richard,

Thanks for posting the pictures - I was driving home from work at around 7.40PM and also saw a "bright ball of fog". At first, I just thought it was a small ball of clouds lit up by the city lights...

Cheers,
Mark

[Suzy]

Wow, Richard, those are super shots!
Thanks for sharing.

[astroron]

That was the one Kevin Dixon and I spotted through our 16" scopes Phil,, I think Terry Cuttle was the only one to image it.
It was great watching the rocket move away from the first stage and the two parts moving through space.
It stayed around for a while till it mirged with the Milky Way and was lost too view.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[astroron]

Good catch Richard :D
Very similar to the view we had in 2010 at Astrofest.
Cheers:thumbsup:

[bkm2304]

Thanks, everyone. Right place and time I guess. It was very puzzling at first.

Richard

[iceman]

Well done Richard! I had someone email me asking what it was. Unfortunately I didn't see it.

[mozzie]

that was somrthing special that night ron...seeing it from apoint and then flaring out we were watching it for ages...iv'e always wanted to see that again and raced out side last night but had missed it bugger.....

[mozzie]

i also remember watching it in johnathan-astrojunk- big sdm telescope

[GrahamL]

That was a great experience wasn't it Mozzie ,a bunch of people standing round in the dark amoungst all those big scopes and eagle eye Ron spotting something that shouldn't be there :)

[mozzie]

an evening i will never forget...

[Kunama]

NASA launched the AEHF-3 Satellite aboard an Atlas V yesterday, its ground path would put it west of Australia at stage 4 (separation of aehf3 from launch vehicle) Ground Track is right, I am not sure if timing coincides.

If so, these images would also have been taken from the USN Diego Garcia Facility

[hikerbob]

I've not looked at the path or timing but there was also a first launch of a Cygnus spacecraft on the way to the ISS at 10:58 (US EDT)

Bob

[gary]

Speedy work capturing the images Richard!

Fantastic stuff.

Thanks for taking the time to post them here.

[gary]

Liftoff at 08:10 UTC which corresponded to 18:10 AEST.

According to here, spacecraft separation took place at 50 minutes 58 seconds elapsed
flight time, which would make it around 19:01 AEST.
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/09/atlas-v-loft-aehf-3-satellite/

[Christoph]

Ahhh, that explains it.... Cornelia (my wife) took some pictures outside last night and discovered this strange object, while going through them....
10s shots every 1m15s
Thanks for the clarification.... :)
Cheers,
Christoph

[gary]

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the heads-up.

10:58 EST corresponds to 14:58 UTC which would make it 00:58 AEST the following
day here which was well pasts when the object was observed here.

The window for AEHF-3 is looking more probable.

[Terry B]

What great photos with the ATCA in the foreground. Well done!

[gary]

Ho Christoph and Cornelia,

Thanks for the pictures and welcome to IceInSpace. :welcome:

Greetings to you there out at the Australia Telescope.

[astroron]

Mozzie,when we first spotted it naked eye,it was like globular cluster close to Scorpius which shouldn't have been there,but when I and Kevin put our 16" scopes on it,it was WOW:eyepop: what a sight.
I was going around telling anyone who would listen to put their scopes on it,Peter Robbins put his 30" monster on it and had a line up wanting to watch the action.
The funniest thing was that most of the imagers had packed up and gone too bed, it was mostly just the observing field who got to see this happening.:D
Groans all round among the imagers :sadeyes: the next morning when they heard of the excitement:P:lol::lol::lol:
Watching the drifting apart of the rocket away from the flair was amazing.
Too think we were watching something happening 23000 kilometers away and in real time was a blast:D something to remember for a long time :)
Cheers:thumbsup:

[astroron]

Great pics Christoph, thank Cornelia :thanx:
Great setting:)
Cheers:thumbsup:

[iceman]

Hey Christoph and Cornelia!

Great shots, and was so great meeting you both.

I can't wait to see that in a timelapse :)

[Christoph]

Thank's Mike and everyone for the nice comments!
It was a great meeting you and Andrew too! Glad you got what you came for!
I thought after you encouragement from last weekend I'll be a bit more active rather than my normally just passive presence in this forum...;)
Connie took pictures all night, so she will make a time-lapse out of it just for the rocket.... :P
It was a little bit too bright due to the moon....
Cheers,
C.

[bkm2304]

Thanks, again everyone. Gary, You may notice the first brighter pic has lots of movement artefact as I was frantically trying to catch it before it disappeared. As it was it lingered for 30 odd minutes so I calmed somewhat. My wife, however is still getting over being unceremoniously dragged - yes that's an appropriate term - from her warm shower to view yet another of husband's interesting but rather dull astro phenomena. This time, however even she was impressed by the strange view through the telescope!

Richard

[deanm]

Here's an older observation of persistant rocket exhaust plume around the Shuttle after undocking from ISS, seen from Adelaide - this was quite a remarkable sight!

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...998#post745998 (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=745998#post745998)

Dean

[Draco]

Hey Christoph
Is that venus and spica just above the dish? Just trying to get my bearings

Thanks

[Christoph]

I think its Venus and Saturn.... Spica would be a little bit lower (behind the Antenna or maybe even below the horizon...).
Cheers,
C.

[eternityforme]

Its Venus and Saturn :thumbsup: