Bright object in western sky at sunset

[Jules Red (Julien)]

Hi Guys

I was driving home from Melbourne tonight and noticed a very bright object in the western sky at about 19:20. It seemed to have a tail. Is there a very bright comet around or was this atmospheric? It seemed to set as a watched it over about 25 min.

[erick (Eric)]

Hi Julien

Nothing likely amongst the planets and stars. Jupiter is too close to the Sun. No, there are no bright comets at the moment.

There was a lot of scattered cloud? Perhaps it was a distant plane coming from the west with its landing lights on. I drive towards the west at sunset and am often fooled by an approaching plane - looks like Venus or Jupiter for quite some time.

Cheers
Eric

[Jules Red (Julien)]

Cheers Eric

My initial thought was Jupiter with some distortion because it was so low but your right I checked where Jupiter was when I got home and there is no way it was that. I also thought about planes as it was close to the Adelaide flight path but it just seemed strange as it took about 25 min to set... My guess is a very weird cloud that was managing to reflect plenty of light...

go a little excited for a few min though

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

I think they are called .... " Min Min " Lights .....

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Sound like a weird effect I see from here on occasion.

When I see it, it looks similiar to a thin comet and shines a bright orange and can stay for 20 - 30 mins until it dissappears into the darkness.

The ones I occasionally see are jets heading towards Adelaide and as they head into the colder air way out on the western horizon they start to leave a Contrail with gives them the appearance of a thin Comet Tail. Then as the sun sets it glows a beatuiful orange then eventually gets lost into the dark sky.

Maybe you have seen the same effect.