I was oserving the sun this morning in white light with my Vixen 80mm refractor from my home in Carlingford. At about 10.19 (daylight saving time) I saw a transit of a circular black object which matched the size approximately of one of the single sunspots in comparison. It moved in a straight line very quicky across the solar disk. Did anyone else observe this? Not a distant plane. Probably a satellite but circular in shape??
I've been observing the Sun for many years and this is the first time I've seen anything like this. It took me aback. Pity I was not imaging the sun at the time.
Richard, the weather stations also launch weather balloons 4 times a day, or at least they do here. Depending on wind they can travel quite some distance and are also fairly large. I think they can reach 80,000 feet or more in altitude.
When viewed from below the foil reflector payload may not be visible.
Could well have been a balloon (no tether seen), but still very odd. It really was one of those "what the ....." moments.
