possible UARS sighting, need confirmation

[NorthernLight (Max)]

Hi All,

Has somebody seen this, too?

last night whilst shooting M16 I saw an object flying by with relatively high velocity and during the brief moment I saw it, it appeared tumbling at a very high rate. Could this have been the decending UAR-Satelite?

details:

location: East Auckland
date: 24 Sept 2011
time: 00:03(am) NZ time
trajectory: coming from south going north towards Hauraki gulf
colour: yellowish-orange
time observed: 2 seconds
remarks: no sound, no tail, was not able to visually follow the object (as I could have visually followed a disappearing plane)

side note: about 10 minutes later a smoke, dust or water vapour cloud rose from the direction the object had disappeared to and remained visible for 15min (could have been a chimney but there was no smell but also no audible impact sound, I actually don´t think its related at all but who knows?)

I have seen many shooting stars and this was not one of the usuals.

Would be great if somebody could confirm the sighting or confirm that UARS definetely was not on a south-north trajectory.

Cheers

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

I think you did. Check this link.

[PeterM]

Originally Posted by NorthernLight

Hi All,



details:

location: East Auckland
date: 24 Sept 2011
time: 00:03(am) NZ time
trajectory: coming from south going north towards Hauraki gulf
colour: yellowish-orange
time observed: 2 seconds
remarks: no sound, no tail, was not able to visually follow the object (as I could have visually followed a disappearing plane)

side note: about 10 minutes later a smoke, dust or water vapour cloud rose from the direction the object had disappeared to and remained visible for 15min (could have been a chimney but there was no smell but also no audible impact sound, I actually don´t think its related at all but who knows?)

I have seen many shooting stars and this was not one of the usuals.

Would be great if somebody could confirm the sighting or confirm that UARS definetely was not on a south-north trajectory.

Cheers

Brilliant Max,
With some sensible basic observation details listed your observation can now be compared to the report linked above. Perhaps you were the only one to see this event, perhaps it is of value to someone.
Either way you show that as an amateur astronomer when presenting a report of something you saw - details, details, details are what is important. Congratulations on your observation and again 10/10 for an observation report.
PeterM.

[NorthernLight (Max)]

Hi Jaqui and Peter,

thanks for your comments, much appreciated.

At least I now know that the satelite really was on a south north trajectory during the final stages of re-entry.

Only the estimated time for NZ fly-by as mentioned in the linked article is off by about 17h.

But in the article it is mentioned that the satelite has been tracked with the aid of a US military satelite. Given that the time difference between the Pentagon (Washington DC) and Auckland NZ is exactly 17h, it would be possible that the author of the article made a mistake in colporting the time as mentioned in US press releases without conversion.

I think that is fairly plausible and hence close this case (with a smiling face) as: SIGHTING CONFIRMED.

Many thanks guys

Cheers