Meteor over Sydney, Hornsby??

[Lumen Miner]

I'm sure this kind of thread comes up often. I can probably guess they all end in "yeah, possibly but no one else saw it".

I'm going to ask anyway.

Did any one else see the comet that came in over Sydney, Hornsby, Thompsons corner at approx 10:45pm tonight.?

I know I'm a newb and as such deemed not so knowledgable, yet I know what I saw, I think.. ;)

I was scanning the sky for clusters with bino's, when I noticed a bright orange trail in my peripheral vision. I focused on it without the bino's and it appeared as...

about 15 degrees above the horizon, travelling from North to South, at I would estimate atleast 15km away, at I would estimate 400km/h, a ball covered in fire (not a streak of light) followed by a tail (again not a streak), which extended a significant distance across the horizon.

It was travelling at an almost parallel yet descending level to the horizon. I first thought it was a jet, doing some kind of spectacular afterburn.

The comet not only came into my area of vision, but also disintigrated within viewing area. The event lasted what seemed 3 secs (i'm sure shorter though) as the comet passed behind a large trees branches and was visible on the other side again.


I have never seen anything but streaks of light before, never something I would associate with flames/fire.

There was also high cloud cover at the time, I'll be damned, but it was actually under the cloud level, with a background of grey, not black..
I'm almost sure it broke up, as the flame and tail puffed out before it got near hitting the ground, possible something left though.. I am so hoping someone else saw that, yet I'm guessing not...

Well that's my story for tonight. Isn't the sky clear in Sydney?!. I'm picking clusters off, that I have never seen in my scope before!! :D

Clear Skies All!!

[astroron]

What you observed was most probably a Meteor or a piece of Space junk.
Comets are usually many millions of kilometers away and travel very slowly across the sky.
They are usually Binocular or telescopic objects which sometimes brighten enough to be seen with the naked eye:)
Cheers

[Lumen Miner]

As you can see, my descriptions have much to be desired. Space junk eh!? Nice :eyepop:

[gregbradley]

Lucky man, I have always wanted to see something like that. As said it was most likely space junk of which there is a tremendous amount. Not content with polluting the surface of the planet man has polluted space as well.

Should lead to interesting problems once space travel becomes more advanced and routine like airline flight is today.

Greg.

[Lumen Miner]

:) Will be one hell of a clean-up project.

[Scotchpaul]

I was down at gerringong and saw it and it definitely had a tail from my view. Had to ring the good lady and tell her how bright it looked. :eyepop: