Huge naked eye tail.

[cotterless45]

Looked to CrB this morning at about 5.30. Saw by eye a fuzzy bright shape. In the bins this showed a cone of bright light which moved up between Hercules and CrB. Very bright by eye, anyone else spotting it ?

Nick.

[stev74]

Yes, I've been out imaging Jupiter and was about to pack up at 5.30am this morning when I first saw the object naked eye. I went in to get my bins for a closer look, cone shaped as you describe, are there any naked eye comets that I wasn't aware of at the moment?

I've held off packing up the scope and I'm just wanting for the object to clear the tree in the neighbours garden to get a closer look. 

[Luke]

Looks like a comet to me, just wow!!

[cotterless45]

I got my app out when I spotted it, thinking it's either a star down low caught in fug or something good !

Very fast moving and transient, accompanied by some lovely long meteor trails behind me. Very stunning by eye and scope, best thing I've spotted, thanks for posting and seeing it ,

Nick.

[stev74]

I'm glad I'm not the only one to see this!

After posting here I went back out but whatever the object was it had faded from my location and I couldn't pick it up again with either my scope or binos. When I saw the object first it was about 30 degrees up and directly in line vertically from Alkaid (the end of the handle of the Plough) and if I had to guess about half a degree wide naked eye maybe a bit more. Cone shaped in the bins as described previously and very much like a tail of a comet but with no bright nucleus.

I vaguely remember reading somewhere (maybe SGL) about a rocket fuel dump in orbit then had a look on Youtube and came across this video from 2007, what do you guys think?

[stev74]

Ok looks like I was right, I've just come across this article - http://www.britastro.org/node/5886

What an incredible thing to see!!         

[Pete Presland]

Saw it as well while imaging the geminds. Thought it was fog or cloud at first. Got a couple of images not sur what they will be like though.

Always interesting to see something different.

[Luke]

Thanks, Stev74, it makes sense in the cold light of day

[cotterless45]

http://www.britastro.org/node/5886

Still unbelievable to see this, probably not likely to see one again !

Nick.

[IanL]

Lucky spot.  Saw something similar many years ago when the Shuttle was being used to boost the ISS in to a slightly higher orbit with the reactant product from the OMS.  It was a fan shape but bent in to more than half a circle so it looked like a searchlight scanning rapidly across the clouds low on the horizon, except there were no clouds.  The weirdness of orbital dynamics meant that the part of the "tail" from the start of the boost in the lower orbit overtook the later part of the tail from higher up.  Very counter-intuitive - have never seen anything similar since.

[alanjgreen]

I saw this (comet) after 5am this morning, explains why I could not find the head of the comet also why it was moving too fast.

Watched the GRS transit too, so went to bed happy.

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

All this seems to tie in with the current 'Why don't Astronomers see U.F.O.s ' thread. I bet that object would generate some reports!

[goodricke1]

Was just packing up after a long night observing the Europa/Io occultation, Geminids etc. when suddenly a bright patch caught my attention in the East. I was stunned, actually ran in to see if anyone was reporting a comet outburst on SGL   Managed to get a couple of shots, a bit unfocused in the rush. This was at 5.52 am, Alphecca top right, zeta Herculis centre-left. 6th mag HIP 79686 almost looks like a 'nucleus' in the first image but the movement is obvious by the second image. Thanks for solving it Stev74!

[FenlandPaul]

What an extraordinary event!

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[ollypenrice]

Very exciting! A few years ago I had a mind blowing view of a fuel purge without knowing what it was. We had a retired professional astronomer staying and he was also at a loss to explain it. A 'fist at arm's length' sized nebula as bright as the Milky Way (which is bright here) had a coloured halo around it almost to the zenith and was drifting slowly to the west. To its west we then saw a tiny nebula and nearby point of light all moving at the same rate. It turned out that the point of light was the rocket and the two nebulae the purges. Very spooky because the coloured halo, of the kind you often see around the moon, must have been 70 degrees across.

Olly

[Mick J]

Wow,  interesting topic.

[Jim Steele]

Qudos for Newbury astronomical societys Richard fleet's video here, but very good

[Stu]

Cracking video, would have been amazing to see but this gives a flavour. Thanks for posting it

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[-Aldebaran-]

Couldn't believe it when I got the link to this topic! I posted a topic in the evening of Saturday asking about a small cloud of dim light in the sky around 05:15 in the morning, I spotted it while walking to the car on my way to work!! A missed opportunity for a scope view!

[Pete Presland]

I would have missed it, but the Geminids were quite and I had wander away from the house with the bino's. when I first saw the object it was a mixture disbelief and amazement. this quickly turned "what the hell is that!" great to witness the event with a few SGL'rs and managed to catch a couple of reasonable images before it quickly faded.