I spent last week in Svalbard at the northernmost inhabited settlement on the planet. This was my second trip there. The total eclipse of the Sun occurred March 20 and that night between sunset and midnight I was able to see no less than 24 Iridium flares. However, I need the assistance of experts on this list server to try to figure out the origin of a mystery object or objects that I photographed after midnight on March 21 from the area near my hotel in Longyearbyen. I have built a web page with the account and 17 photos that will help perhaps. In all of my years of sky watching I have not seen an apparition quite like this, which appeared to resemble a rocket engine firing of some sort except that it occurs over a 45 minute interval. In fact, I had the impression that it was visible well before I began photographing it with central brighenings occurring and reoccuring. If anyone has any technical explanation (especially anyone living at high latitudes where optical phenomenon are common), please forward it to me. http://www.eclipsetours.com/svalbard-mystery-object/ Paul D. Maley email: pdmaley_at_yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Seesat-l mailing list http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-lReceived on Thu Mar 26 2015 - 05:31:46 UTC
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Thu Mar 26 2015 - 10:31:47 UTC