Meteor smoke ??

[Craney]

The maximum of the α-Monocerotid meteor shower looks a bit of a washout in terms of the cloud here in Yorkshire.   

I took a time lapse of the Orion region last night just in case I could capture anything bright or spectacular, well I got this....

At first I thought it was a rocket or firework,  but this was a timelapse  movie where the camera takes a 30s sub and then delays a bit before taking another, and it was at 02:00 in the morning.

Looking at how much Orion has moved the sequence here must be in the order of 30 mins or more.         Any guesses  ??    Plane discharge ?  Meteor Smoke ??....   Santa in training.....???

 

 

[Paul M]

My take on it is it being a persistent jet trail. It's common to only get a trail along a segment of a planes track. I think the segment then just blew along in the wind, confirmed by it taking an identical path to the clouds.

A persistent meteor trail would have been much higher and unlikely to follow the clouds so closely, if at all. 

[Alan White]

I would like to think it is Santa in training myself.
 

[Craney]

3 minutes ago, Paul M said:

My take on it is it being a persistent jet trail.

Yes, very plausible.  Especially the drift motion.   

The camera (  Canon Gx-7 )  is very sensitive and i am surprised it didn't detect any lights, even with the gap in the time lapse.

[Paul M]

1 minute ago, Craney said:

The camera (  Canon Gx-7 )  is very sensitive and i am surprised it didn't detect any lights, even with the gap in the time lapse.

My thoughts too. A definite hole in my theory!

It seems probable that at least one frame would have caught the actual plane and/or its navigation lights.  I still prefer the contrail theory to the meteor theory. 

Another thing, a meteor leaving such a trail would have been a Bolide and very likely widely reported. With car dash cams now in abundance a bolide is unlikely to go unrecorded too!

[Craney]

Maybe a black-ops mission .....   one that does not exist and never will exist.....

[Paul M]

14 minutes ago, Craney said:

Maybe a black-ops mission .....   one that does not exist and never will exist.....

You may laugh...

One day a long while ago I was aware of a lot of jet aircraft noise going overhead. I couldn't see much naked eye but with the bins I picked out groups of military jets heading west. The flight groups continued into the night and I noted there were no lights visible to me. 

Some while later I came across something in the aviation press about them having been part of a huge NATO exercise.  

[maw lod qan]

I've seen contrails moving with the jetstream long after the jet has disappeared.

Sometimes when the moon is just right, the contrail will even cast a shadow in the sky.

[Craney]

21 hours ago, Paul M said:

....been part of a huge NATO exercise.  

I remember a couple of years ago when 2 Typhoons were scrambled from Lincolnshire at mid-night to intercept a civil airliner coming into Newcastle airport.  It was a clear night and I was out in the garden.  The sonic booms gave their presence away ...... almost fell off my chair !!!!......but I picked them up visually a few moments before,  I dont think they were displaying lights.