Extreme astronomy

Re: Bright White Light

edcannon — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:46:17 GMT

On the SeeSat-L list there was a good reply saying that for various reasons this could not have been the launch from Plesetsk, so it's a mystery. Here's the link to the SeeSat-L message:

http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Dec-2007/0075.html

Ed Cannon - Austin, Texas, USA

Re: Bright White Light

edcannon — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 07:08:55 GMT

I believe that it may be possible that you saw part of the launch of a Russian satellite from Plesetsk (latitude 62 north, longitude 40 east). The launch did occur on October 23, although research would be required to match the time of your sighting with the time of the launch.

Rocket and missile launches can be spectacular, to say the least. You are quite far to the east of Plesetsk, but that satellite was an Oko, a Russian early-warning satellite, which was launched into a highly eccentric orbit, and the launch may have been generally in your direction.

Can you say what time it was on Oct. 23, at least the hour of the morning? Can you describe any motion that you observed from the object? Which direction did it move and how fast? How bright do you think it was, say in comparison to the Moon or to Venus, etc?

Ed Cannon - Austin, Texas, USA

Bright White Light

Siberian Star — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 21:44:49 GMT

I had just woken up on the morning of the 23rd of October and routinely gazed at the stars out my window in the western skies. I noticed something get brighter and it was so amazing I didn't know what to think of it, never seen anything like it. I use Celestron SkyMaster binos, I watched it for a couple of minutes getting brighter and weird shaped sort of. Then it disappeared. I know I saw something amazing but I had absolutely no clue because I'm the amateur of amateurs, I wasn't even sure which direction I was looking until I figured it out later on.

At first I thought it was a comet because it looked like it had a tail but then I've never seen a comet before that and I had little idea of what comets were really. I asked a few Astronomers online and they said it might have been a fireball or something. Later that night there were reports of a comet exploding but I didn't hear about it till 2 weeks later. I don't really think it was the comet, I'm not sure though. I have no idea.

But that was an amazing sight, one I'll never forget! And it inspired me to study Astronomy.