Hello Last night at Canowindra at our Observing site We noticed a formation in the western sky say due west . It looked triangular in shape It hung there in the sky then disolved. Some said it was some small cloud formation but there was something strange about its Shape.It occured between 9pm and 11pm. You could see it naked eye It probably covered 2 to 3 degrees of the sky. Tony
We saw this at Leyburn (QLD) too last night. I got a shot of it as it spread, and will post it here when I get it off the camera. It appeared as two streaks of glow that slowly moved away from each other and dissipated. Interesting to know that it was spotted elsewhere as well.
Four of us from the AAQ watched it from in the region of Peak Crossing. It was spotted at 8:50 almost due west in Cetus. It was a bright (brighter than Halle-bopp) object initially but was gone after 5 mins or so, and before I could grab an image.
This is my sketch of it when it was about half a degree across, using binos.
What ever it was, it made our night!
[Added Later: My eyes are obviously minature Maksutovs, hence the sketch being left-right inverted!]
Here is a crude photo of the object. Apologies for the trailing stars, not quite framing it right, and limited noise reduction, but I was in the middle of sorting out some balance issues with my mount and the piggybacked Canon 50D and 70-200mm f4 lens when the object appeared.
The EXIF data should be with the file, but if not it says the shot was taken at 20:54:45 on the 28th, has an exposure of 57sec at f4 and at 200mm.
From memory I aligned the frame to the horizon though don't quote me on that, and I would estimate the object's direction was fairly close to where the sun went down. The picture seems to match Anthony's description more, so I guess it possibly indicates that the object was located on a latitude between Leyburn and Peaks Crossing.
Here is a crude photo of the object. Apologies for the trailing stars, not quite framing it right, and limited noise reduction, but I was in the middle of sorting out some balance issues with my mount and the piggybacked Canon 50D and 70-200mm f4 lens when the object appeared.
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And now you understand why every image of a UFO is shakey and unfocused.
Seriously though....
Did you check Heavens Above for transits of the ISS? Could be they flushed the toilet.
From memory I aligned the frame to the horizon though don't quote me on that, and I would estimate the object's direction was fairly close to where the sun went down. The picture seems to match Anthony's description more, so I guess it possibly indicates that the object was located on a latitude between Leyburn and Peaks Crossing.
That's brilliant. We can get the orientation from the star field.
The most unreliable evidence in court is that of an eye witness, so it is really good to have a shot to get the facts right!
It sounds like it was a defueling of a spent rocket.
And given the separation of the observers, I would have thought the event occured well outside the Earth's atmosphere which makes that a good candidate.
There was another one of these a while back wasn't there?
Here are my 2 photos of the "UFO" from Heathcote, Victoria. Taken around 21:46 or 21:47 28th Feb 2009, about 30 seconds apart I think. Each exposure 16 seconds long. The object appears quite small in these pics, but you can get the idea of how large it was from the starfields.
Let me know what you think and if you want higher resolutions to play with.
And given the separation of the observers, I would have thought the event occured well outside the Earth's atmosphere which makes that a good candidate.
There was another one of these a while back wasn't there?
Yes you are correctI think it has been in the last couple of years
Here are my 2 photos of the "UFO" from Heathcote, Victoria. Taken around 21:46 or 21:47 28th Feb 2009, about 30 seconds apart I think. Each exposure 16 seconds long. The object appears quite small in these pics, but you can get the idea of how large it was from the starfields.
Let me know what you think and if you want higher resolutions to play with.
Here are my 2 photos of the "UFO" from Heathcote, Victoria. Taken around 21:46 or 21:47 28th Feb 2009, about 30 seconds apart I think. Each exposure 16 seconds long. The object appears quite small in these pics, but you can get the idea of how large it was from the starfields.
Let me know what you think and if you want higher resolutions to play with.
Well done Emma. Wish I had of got the start of it. Looks very interesting.
