I saw a very strange thing last night on the moon

[kiratgurung]

Hi,

I don't know how u guys will take this thing...

I was observing moon last night here in New Delhi @ 11:02 p.m, I saw two small black dot hovering over the moon very fast.

Below is a small .gif animation I made to show what I exactly saw.

Did anyone see that?

[Stephen]

I suspect a fly/bird/bat flew across your FOV

[Moonshane]

likely to be a bird, the ISS or other satellite or an aeroplane?

[richbyers]

oooh i like these ones, i always love ufos- though i think i will settle on a fly close to the scope? or a birds close to home?

if not it cant be any satelite as you show it flying all over the place at different speeds

i doubt it would be a plane

rich

[rblunden]

Maybe it's an alien craft which only appears on April 1st

[kiratgurung]

thanks for the comments guys...

@rblunden hahaha... I am not trying to make April fool in 2nd of April.

Anyways, i kept that gif file in loop forever mode. I saw just 2 dots 1 after another...

Anyways, even i don't believe in alien ships, or mother ships! so I will think that was bird. Will let you know... if I see it again.

[richbyers]

thanks for the comments guys...

@rblunden hahaha... I am not trying to make April fool in 2nd of April.

Anyways, i kept that gif file in loop forever mode. I saw just 2 dots 1 after another...

Anyways, even i don't believe in alien ships, or mother ships! so I will think that was bird. Will let you know... if I see it again.

you never know man....look a second time you may see that Go'auld pyramid starship coming down

[acey]

If it was something flying in front of the moon then it could be anything (e.g. birds). Otherwise maybe floaters in the eye. Also, I've sometimes seen a darting black dot when observing bright objects with a Newtonian, and I believe it's caused by the shadow of the secondary obstruction.

[StevePeg]

I took a video a couple of months ago of the moon with a spc900 and my Heritage. At 14 seconds, an object wizz's across LHS. I guess this happens alot to people and its just a satellite.

[neil phillips]

I suspect a fly/bird/bat flew across your FOV

unless the fly or bird was at infinity wouldnt be as sharp as this i dont think, more likely with a bird agreed, flys at infinity would be damm small and completely out of focus i think.

Not a satellite or ISS as it changes direction, the one flying from right to left, appears to slow down dramatically, no one noticed that ?

so even the plane explanation seems a little off. the bird or bat explanation seems the likely explanation. There is so much of a laughter attitude towards anything that could be unusual, call it ufos, alien craft, whatever, if something very interesting was ever picked up by astronomers, we would laugh the evidence away before we even really looked at it, some of the comments on here are a prime example of that. For a seriouse look at anything i wouldnt show it to people that like to be fashionably sniggering at the ufo subject, Allen hynek would be so dissapointed. look him up

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I agree with Neil, bird (night-jar?) or bat is most likely.

[Atlas]

Could very well be the moon orbiter if it's still up there taking readings for frozen water.

[WakeyTiger]

The ISS is tracking across our Southern Skies at about 4am UK time at the moment, I think India is about 7hours in front of UK at the moment, so this doesn't tie in... (I manage a team out in Mumbia)

[Andrew*]

Sometimes the field lens in an eyepiece is at the focus point. Maybe small insects crossing the lens?

If the dots really were as sharp and small as that, a flying animal would be impossible as it would need to be extremely high up to come to focus and be that small.

More details would be helpful to get any closer: telescope (to determine hyperfocal point), eyepiece (magnification, and hence angular size of object), exact time (satellite still a possibilty?) etc.

Love these questions - there is usually a simple explanation... UFO? Quite possibly, but if it was an insect crawling on the lens, then it would be a UCO....

Andrew

[acey]

If the dots really were as sharp and small as that, a flying animal would be impossible as it would need to be extremely high up to come to focus and be that small.

We have no information on how sharp and small they were, so let's guess.

Suppose it was a bird with a wingspan of 1 metre (e.g. crow). And suppose it was 5km away. Then it would subtend an angle of approximately 0.01 degrees which is about a 50th of the moon's apparent diameter. I suppose many people would report that as a "dot". It would certainly be in sharp focus.

But of course we can play with the numbers any way we like, making it something smaller and closer, bigger and further, subtending a larger or smaller angle, and being exactly in focus or a bit blurred.

Let's face it, it could have been anything. Most likely it was some wildlife flying around at night, or else a trick of the observer's eye.

[Andrew*]

Right you are Andrew. For some reason I equated 1km distant to 1km altitude (i.e. at zenith).....

[kharga]

Probably birds!

Canadian geese have been seen as high as 9000 feet.

Bar-headed Geese and Demoiselle Cranes may actually fly at heights of up to almost 30,000 ft. - that's more than 5 miles above sea-level because they have to cross the Himalaya Mountains.

[RogerTheDodger]

I have an avi I took of the moon with a bat flying past and it looks nothing like that, just a blurred blob.

[acey]

In assessing the accuracy of the report we should bear in mind that the moon was not full at the time of sighting - it was 69% illuminated. So the image cannot be taken as a lifelike portrayal - it tells us nothing about how large/small/sharp/blurred the dots were, or their precise direction of motion.

The moon at the reported time and location was 46.2 degrees above horizon, so the altitude of any object seen to pass in front of it would be roughly 72% of its direct distance from the observer. A crow-sized bird 5km from the observer would be flying at an altitude of 3.6km. If that sounds too high then just choose a smaller bird nearer the observer. Or indeed choose any sized bird at any distance. Or else put it down to a phenomenon of the observer's eye.

Geese sound like as good an explanation as any.

[starnut]

Sorry, but it looks man made to me

[GazK]

have you got an SCT? If so, you've got an infestation of scope gnats. The only way to get rid of them is to sell it cheap and get an open-ended one. ;-)

[Cubemaster]

Sorry, but it looks man made to me

The OP did say it was a man made animation

[neil phillips]

The most interesting part of this might be the dot that flys right to left, if the motion is correct and hasnt been altered in anyway by the processing. Then the quite sudden slowing down of its motion does seem a little interesting. For this reason if the motion is faitfully reproduced here ? Im not sure The ISS or any other space object would really seem to fit the bill.

A bird most certainly could slow down in flight, and without any other information this seems like the most obviouse explanation.

Too many unknowns in information to say much more i dont think.

However going back to the laughter element try applying that to the Capt Larry coyne ufo incident, and one is left with the slightly troubling feeling, that ridicule and laughter do not really seem to be enough of a sensible approach to such reports.

I realize its been quite tame on here, and a geniune response to understand whats on the video, so no finger pointing. And well done to those not continually starting off with the jokes.

I am all for a laugh especially if spocks mentioned. But like Hynek i do think some, and i mean SOME incidents really do seem rather interesting and merit as much investigation as is possible.

Really not wanting to start this chesnut debate again. As i find the emotion on both sides of believers non believers dont knows, or just the plain curiouse really gets in the way of anything thats reported as unusual being a meaningful disscusion. Why i have no idea especially if someone isnt saying it was a alien craft.

I actually dont bother reporting anything unusual much anymore, because of this problem. Which is a shame. As i have certainly seen things that i probably would have liked to have talked about with those whos understanding may exceed mine on whats possible to see. Or even misinterpreted.

I mean in cases like capt Larry coyne, surely its not enough to joke about them hitting the bottle before they took that flight. Which ive seen mentioned, probably because they have no real answer, and the testimony does seem rather interesting.

Something the angry crowd rather dont like i suppose.

Why is beyond me. Maybe people dont like contemplating being possibly wrong. And having there worldview stirred up i guess ? such a shame.

A bit like a child that hasnt had its own way because not everyone agrees. This sorry human emotion certainly goes both sides of this debate agreed. One needs to step away from this kind of emotional response, regardless if they find any particular report interesting or not. I guess im as guilty as those i find distasteful for reacting. But sometimes i do find it hard not to try to reach out to common sense,Even though i know for the most part its probably not worthwhile, and rather damaging to ones reputation. I said i wouldnt start up this chesnut. But i have havent i

[kiratgurung]

Thank you very much for the valuable information.

I was just going through some of UFO things in youtube and this video:-

was quite similar to what I saw.

Now I think, I saw 2 birds flying quite high that night.

Thank you very much guys.

[Phil Fargaze]

What is strange is that I had a very similar experience. There is another thread started about this which is here:-

http://stargazerslounge.com/observing-lunar-solar/183101-saw-something-pass-moon-last-night.html

and that is where I reported my observation.

The object I saw was circular, jet black, too large to be a satellite, moving at a constant velocity.

I was looking at the moon through the telescope when I saw it.

The other strange thing is that there are observations from different dates and times.

I have been an amateur astronomer for 37 years so I am quite used to seeing strange objects and then putting an explanation to them.

By sharing our experiences and observatations we might be able to come to an explanation.