Odd sighting Wed 29/11/06

[elikifil]

Hi All,

Hoping someone can shed some light on a sighting I made, 21:41 Australian EST Wed 29 Nov from western Sydney. I noticed what appeared to be a star roughly half-way between Betelgeuse and Canopus. It originally had the luminosity and colour of Sirius then over the space of a few seconds, it dimmed to the point it was no longer visible.

The skies were cloud-free. The object did not appear to move - at least to my naked eye - rules out aircraft, satellites, meteors, comets. There were no man-made objects anywhere near the region of the sky which might explain this.

Any suggestions?

[fringe_dweller]

elikifil, you probably saw what is sometimes called a point meteor. which is a meteor seen head-on from your perspective, rather than at angle/side-on like we normally do, and hence flares brightly and fades to nothing.
Nice, your lucky, sounds like it was a beauty!
They always make me think of shortlived supernova's for some reason

[iceman (Mike)]

Welcome elikfil

If it was moving I would've suggested an Iridium Flare, but since it wasn't, then Kearn's explanation sounds like the most likely.

Always nice to see something unusual, congrats!

[Dennis]

Starry Night Pro V6 doesn't show any satellites for around 9:35 to 9:45pm on Tuesday 28th November (I presume 29th is a typo as today is Wed 29th and it’s not yet 9:41pm).

Cheers

Dennis

[mill (Martin)]

It was an iridium flare.
I saw it in Melbourne going east and it was very bright and slow.
It was so bright , it looked like a star with flares and as it moved east it got dimmer and after about 15 seconds it dimmed and was reddish.
Maybe because i was in Melbourne and right under it , i could see it better.
Pity i didn't have the camera with me
First i thought it was an helicopter but there was no noise and if it was a searchlight then they were shining it right at me.
So no copter.

[ving (David)]

welcome aboard the IIS express

[fringe_dweller]

hmmm interesting!, funny how an event like monday evenings (daytime/twilight!) Fireball/Bolide and subsequent media coverage can spark an interest for a few days
this sounds like the same thing?

'Bright light in sky at Ballarat
FOR the second night in a row residents in western Victoria have reported seeing a bright light in the sky.

Residents at Ballarat, west of Melbourne, said they saw something that looked like a UFO after spotting an orange coloured light in the sky about 10pm (AEDT) yesterday.

The object hovered for more than one minute.

But one resident said it could have been a model helicopter.

“A lot of guys fly night choppers here and they have the LCD lights around the blades and they have lights all down the boom and tail rotor,” the man, identified only as Ian, told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

“These models can hover and they can go from zero to about 100 km/h in a few seconds.”'

from

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599...0-1702,00.html

[jase (Jason)]

Welcome elikifil to IIS

Sounds like an iridium flare to me.

[elikifil]

Cheers guys. If it was a point meteor, I feel very privileged...

If we've ruled out an Iridium flare, could it be space junk having the same effect? It lasted only a few short seconds and it definitely appeared stationary.

Either way, I seem to have a knack for spotting things whenever I look up...