[ngcles]

Hi Craig & All,

Yep, several of us observing up at Mudgee on Sunday morning at about 3am saw it. I was the first to notice it very close to Alpha Leporis and my reaction was to blurt out (very Arthur Dent like) "What the hell is that ??"

Binoculars and telescopes were slewed quickly to the location even though none of us knew what it was. The bright, greenish triangular, or conical gas cloud was about 2.5-3 degrees long and had very high surface brightness --comparable to or perhaps brighter than the brightest parts of M42 and quite similar in colour. There were three star like points associated; the payload (brightest) was out in front by about a degree and there was another faint star-like spot embedded near the point of the gas cloud (probable ejected stage). There was one other very faint (13th mag??) point between the payload and the cloud. The payload over the course of the next hour slowly drew away from the cloud while the cloud faded and drifted in the direction of Canis Minor. Probably covered about 20 degrees before it had faded below naked eye visibility over about 50 minutes.

Before 10 minutes were out we'd worked out it was either (1) The failed Russian GRUNT mission or (2) Curiosity post stage separation or (3) Aliens who were clearly watching us.

After it failed to zig-zag across the sky faster than anything humans could possibly build or come down and land, we started to doubt hypothesis 3 (go ahead and call me a cynic). By the next morning we'd discounted hypothesis 1 which left just No 2. Reminded me very much of a similar sight just after sunset one night in (Nov 1997??) when Cassini left Earth orbit and initially thought I'd found a comet that had somehow sneaked-up on us from the direction of the Sun.


Best,

Les D