Just Joined- Very Confused !

Asterism (Tony) · #1 29-03-2014, 02:38 PM

What was that in the Western sky at about 7pm last night ? From here ( Melbourne area ) it looked like a comet but was moving too fast. I have checked weather sites/astronomy sites etc but nothing found ??

A quick hello to everybody... you all seem like a good crowd to be part of.

jenchris (Jennifer) · #2 29-03-2014, 02:43 PM

Probably Zark from Toolat doing a practice run.
Either him or the International Space Station anywho

barx1963 (Malcolm) · #3 29-03-2014, 05:06 PM

Hi Tony and welcome!
First off, comets will only move very slowly, if you can detect movement in a comet naked eye it means it will be very close to us and will be one of the biggest news stories around! Secondly they are "fuzzy".
Most likely the ISS (International Space Station). There was a pass that was visible here in Colac and was nice and bright ( mag -2.6 I think!) but it was at 8pm not 7pm.
You can check ISS passes and lots of other info on satellites, comets etc here
www.heavens-above.com

Cheers
Malcolm

OzStarGazer · #4 29-03-2014, 05:38 PM

Maybe Cosmos 1220 or Ardusat-1.

PS: I had a quick look in Starry Night Pro (Melbourne West around 7pm yesterday evening) and those two satellites dashed through space in front of me, but it depends on the exact time.

omegacrux (David) · #5 29-03-2014, 09:38 PM

I was out with my daughter last night and saw that object , I thought it was the Chinese station , mainly because it didn't follow the track that the iss usually does when it goes over here ! .
We followed it from horizon to horizon

David

Amaranthus (Barry) · #6 30-03-2014, 03:45 AM

I saw the ISS tonight at about 9:30pm in the northern sky - a bunch of us observed it from Stockport. Takes about 1 min to traverse the sky.

sheeny (Al) · #7 30-03-2014, 07:14 AM

If what you saw had a tail like a comet, it was most likely a bolide (large meteor) or space junk burning up in the atmosphere. Otherwise a satellite like the ISS is the most likely explanation.

Al.

Tony_ (Tony) · #8 30-03-2014, 11:20 PM

Apparently rockets can do fuel dumps. These look exactly like comets but move faster - and slowly disappear. If you google it you can find images.

Regards,
Tony.

Pinwheel (Doug) · #9 31-03-2014, 04:28 PM

I'd go for space junk too! There is thousands of objects up there! How they don't hit satellites or the Space stations is beyond my pruny brain.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...dosJPX8C21lYo5

julianh72 (Julian) · #10 31-03-2014, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pinwheel

There is thousands of objects up there! How they don't hit satellites or the Space stations is beyond my pruny brain.

Haven't you seen the movie "Gravity" with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock?