Schierer Space

Well technically it is a UFO, at the moment, by I don’t mean to imply it is alien in origin. After getting home this evening, I walked out in the driveway to look at the stars. It’s the first clear night in a while, and I’m prone to doing this sort-of thing. Anyhow, I looked up and saw this:

“How could a comet that obvious not already be reported?” I was thinking. I monitor all sorts of sites for things like this. Anyhow, I snagged the camera and snapped some quick shots. I’ve learned that sometimes things are best captured quickly and analyzed later!

Eventually I got out my telescope and could clearly see an object moving with the cloud but slightly separated. You can see this object as a track in the images due to the long exposure. Zooming in, multiple objects can be seen. I spotted two for sure, but I swear I saw flashes in the vicinity both naked eye and with the telescope. I’m guessing either a staging event (Geo insertion possibly), a fuel dump, or possibly a collision or break-up event.

I’ve cross posted to SpaceWeather.com for help identifying this apparition.

Update: I’m featured on the front page of SpaceWeather again! The quote and attributions are horribly scrambled, but that is my image (as you can see above). Correct quote below…

I spotted this naked eye object and wondered how such a bright comet could have been missed! Further observing (including these images) shows that this object is moving somewhat rapidly relative to the background stars. The plume was triangular (like a classic comet tail) to the naked eye. The motion has widened it. Two object trails are also visible. Perhaps a satellite explosion or staging event? The motion was basically eastward. With some time I could locate the star field to give somewhat accurate coordinates, but I wanted to get the picture up.

Update 2: SpaceWeather has identified this as:

…fuel dumped from the upper stage of an Atlas rocket that launched a classified satellite into orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office earlier this evening. It was a splendid display, now faded away.

Update 3: SpaceWeather has the quotes pretty much repaired now. Kudos to the webmaster for multiple quick response! More images in our Spacecraft Gallery.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 10:18 pm and is filed under Astronomy, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.