Cambroon 19th Nov Report

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

It was a small group that gathered at Cambroon for Saturday night. Present were Ron, Graham, Dennis, Chris and Jeanette.
The afternoon started with a little solar observing, but the sun proved to be too hot and we retired to the shade to watch Graham setup his ED80 and associated astrophotography paraphanalia.
Bogie at 6.41
We knew that there were no bright satellites predicted for the evening so to our suprise at 6.41pm, a bright object was spotted, heading from west to east. It wasn't a meteor, too slow and long, Ron quickly got his binos, no lights, so it wasn't a plane. We estimated that it was going at least 4 times faster than any satellite should. Maybe one of the others could give an estimate of it's brightness. Ron and I came to the conclusion that it just might have been a spacecraft on re-entry. If anyone else can offer another logical explanation we'd like to hear from you.
Chris is a newbie who has been lurking here at IIS, he came along for a look-see. We really enjoyed showing him around the night sky. Thanks for letting me use your laser light.
The highlight of the night was to be the Alpha Monoceratid and Leonid meteor showers. Both were practically non events. I spotted 4 of the Mono's and maybe 6 of the Leonids.
There was one meteor that caught all our eyes. It was a bright aqua blue that broke up due north. The vapour trail lingered for at least 5 minutes, through binos it left a very curious Lazy P symbol hanging in the sky about a degree or so wide. Facinating!
We finished up just before sunrise. Poor Ron, it was his 3rd all nighter in a row.
Thanks for the Hospitality Ron!

[GrahamL]

jjjnettie I think i've seen what your talking about ,I was going to say the time sounds wrong but forgot about daylight savings you guys are
an hour (and 10 years ) behind the rest of us .

Yes its very fast much quicker than any sattelite I've seen
the time you mention is very close also .. It seemed to dissappear
about 15 /20 degrees above the eastern horizon
This was perhaps a month ago or more for me so it sounds like its a nightly
thing if you quick enough to catch it .. shortly after I noticed a sattelitte
travelling south to north much slower low in the east which gave a good comparrison of the speed the other one ,which was indeed about 4 times quicker like you mention .. beats me

[Nordo]

Thanks for the great report .
Sorry I couldn't be there. I'm having a go at playing cricket this year, and by the time I had spent a whole day standing in the field, then getting home after 7pm, the last thing I felt like doing was driving over an hour to Cambroon. So I stayed at home and had a very early night .
I really wanted to make it this weekend as I probably won't be able to get there next month due to visitors staying with us.
Thanks Jen.

[stephenmcnelley]

jjjnettie our group of 7 at the time saw exactly the same satellite type thing, and at the rough altitude nightstalker suggested.
Buggered if we know, but it was either low and slow or high, big and going like something else. My guess is it was one of our many many satellites but you can never truly know without some confirmation.

At what time did you see that remarkable meteor, we saw a horizon to horizon cracker that suits that descripion.

[astroron (Ron)]

Thanks for doing the report JJJ, the only thing I can add is I estimate it to be about mag -4 or -5, no aircraft type flashing lights, and no fading until it was very close to the eastern horizon, I rule out an aircraft as there was no noise.

The night was quite enjoyable even though the seeing was not the best, but we still observed lots of objects.
Chris the lurker was impressed what he saw and took home a bag full of information to help him in his start into astronomy, look forward to seeing him again in the future.
Having a non observing night tonight after 3 very long nights, finished this morning at about 04;30

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

Stephen, I truely can't remember what time that meteor came through. After 11pm though. It was a beauty though.

[Odlaw]

Wish I could have been there.

I will be there next month....for sure

Hoping to get 2 nights in then

[Gravitron]

Many thanks to Ron, Jeanette, Graham and Dennis at Cambroon last Saturday night. Couldn't imagine a more patient, friendly and helpful bunch -and I didn't even turn up with binoculars! No longer a lurker but a reg'd member as of now and you have made me even keener to get out into the dark damp and cold and keep looking up. Willl be catching up with you again in the future. -Chris

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Chris. Glad you had a great time. Looking forward to meeting you at the next get together before Xmas

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

welcome aboard Chris!