Re: >> weather balloon -Daylight Bright Object
ykChia (chiayk@singnet.com.sg)
Sat, 13 Mar 1999 07:00:27 +0800
Hi Paul, Ed, Jake:
Yes, I agree the most likely candidate is a weather balloon.( I still waiting a
confirmation from Weather men here.)
Memory failing or what ...this reminded me of my 1978 observation of a '
flasher' in a junk 60mm refractor. At x60 what i saw is a spinning triangular
shinning metal. I was puzzled then. I placed a call to Wellington ( NZ) Carter
Observatory, the scientific officer calmely told me what I saw is a just released
Meterelogical Balloon with a radar sounding metal plate.
What I saw recently had do look like a pear-shape as Jake mentioned... yes it
was quite a sight...
By the way, I thought satellite watching is a recent ( last 10 years or so)
hobby. I got a surprise when I found reference to Satellite Observation in my 17th
edition of Norton's Star Atlas which I acquired in 1979!.
.
rgds
ykChia
(See-Sat-Ler in Singapore)
JRBURCA@aol.com wrote:
> This might have been a weather balloon or some other type of balloon. Being
> in the western sky with the sun low in the east, there could have been a nice
> reflection against the blue sky. "x3 times Mars" hints in the direction of it
> being a balloon. If there was not much wind at its altitude, any motion might
> not have been apparent in that short of a time with no reference points in the
> sky.
>
> Certainly no satellite is that bright, for that length of time. If there is
> one, I'd sure like to know about it and see it for myself ! Daylight Iridium
> flares seen with the unaided eye are visible for only 1 or 2 seconds.
>
> Many years ago I saw a weather balloon in the western sky but it was backlit
> by the just set sun in early evening. It caught a lot of people's attention
> (Houston, TX 1969 or 1970) and made the local news. It moved very slowly.
> After I had looked at it with binoculars, it was easy to see that it was a
> balloon, with the pear-like shape. It was quite a sight though.
>
> -- Jake Rees
> Burbank, California