Identifying satellite? rocket? Hobart 6pm 30 April 2021

[2StarsInScorpio (Andrew)]

Just after 6pm tonight I saw a slow moving fuzzy blob moving from north to south passing just to the west of Alpha Centauri. I think the fuzziness was due to high level atmospheric moisture. First thoughts were ISS but this is usually a west to east phenomenon and didn't seem to match ISS tracker. I did a quick search on google but nothing popped up. Any ideas? Suggestions for a good website or app to help out?

p.s. I saw 60 starlink satellites moving through the sky a couple of months ago. Awesome spectacle.

[glend (Glen)]

It might be the new Chinese space station which was just launched. It is in a highly inclined orbit (42 degrees) and the path at present takes it over Australia. It would be appearing to be tracking from the north west to the south east.

[xelasnave]

This may not have the answer but its a handy site.
https://www.heavens-above.com/
Alex

[2StarsInScorpio (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

This may not have the answer but its a handy site.
https://www.heavens-above.com/
Alex

Thanks. I just checked out that site. This search shows a few candidates but none seemed to match. https://www.heavens-above.com/AllSat...d&alt=0&tz=TST
None seem bright enough...to me it looked at least magnitude 1. It was very fuzzy and so hard to get a good comparison. Also, seemed to pass fairly close to Alpha Centauri.

I'll keep researching. Amazing how much stuff is up there.

[gary]

indeed it was a Long March-4C rocket carrying the Yaogan-34 reconnaissance satellite.

It has been widely reported including sightings in New Zealand.

Here is a video on YouTube taken in New Zealand :-
https://youtu.be/LuxZ73z37mA

The launch of the rocket is seen in this video :-
https://youtu.be/-yqed4nCfQQ

[2StarsInScorpio (Andrew)]

Thank you. That is exactly what it looked like.