Can you explain this?

[slippo74 (Cristiano)]

Hy guys,

Last night I had a walk on the Harbour bridge.
I got my camera with me because I was thinking to give some shots to the Opera House. My girlfriend pointed me on an unusual (probably just for me) bright object in the sky. It was showing up in the middle between Rigel and Canopus. The attractive think was the fact that its was blinking in many colours. We observed it from about 9pm to 10pm. It was there for all the time.
I did 2 shots with a 75-300mm zoom lens, however impossible to have a firm image without a tripod.
You can see in any case the range of colours that we saw from it last night.



Can be Sirius?

[multiweb (Marc)]

I reckon some of those IISAC2009 guys doing sky light painting again ... that ot Jupiter?

[Ian Robinson]

Hand held camera took a "long" exposure .... buy a tripod.

[slippo74 (Cristiano)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

I reckon some of those IISAC2009 guys doing sky light painting again ... that ot Jupiter?

Oh thanks Marc, that explains what was it !
Jupiter shows up to West, this was on East.
I checked with Stellarium and the position may match with Sirius, but it was not low enough to be sure 100%.

[Robh (Rob)]

It was almost certainly Sirius. It would have been some 20 to 30 degrees above the horizon and pretty much due east.

Regards, Rob

[Octane (Humayun)]

Once again, did you even bother to read his post?

Originally Posted by Ian Robinson

Hand held camera took a "long" exposure .... buy a tripod.

Cristiano, it was, as others have said, most likely Sirius.

Check out RobK's images from a few weeks ago of Sirius scintillating over a period of 1 second in the lower horizon.

Regards,
Humayun

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

That is the funkiest star trail I have ever seen.
You should enter that at the next South Pacific Star Party.

It would Sirius. I had one of my friends mesmerrised by it while sitting on Manly beach a week ago.

[slippo74 (Cristiano)]

Thanks all... yep definitely it was Sirius.
When you are a beginner in astronomy it easy to not recognise object in the sky as easy is get surprised how wonderful they can appears.

Originally Posted by tlgerdes

That is the funkiest star trail I have ever seen.

Oh yeah, it seem they are having a disco party all the time up there Such amazing colours!

[Kal (Andrew)]

Funnily enough, when I went through some of the UK declassified UFO files, most UFO sightings reported were probably just a bright star like this, with a similar theme to the reports.