What the heck did I just see???

[KimG]

OK , so I have been an astronomer for more than 20 years, seen several comets, all the Messier catalogue bar 1,  A decent number of NGC objects, the space staion lots of times even this morning, starlink chains, iridium flares and meteor showers etc. 

So, at about 5:08 this morning moving at a brisk speed across the southern sky at around 15 or 20 degrees above the horizon was the strangest sight I have ever seen, to the naked eye is was a bight moving cloud about the size of the moon, in my bins there was a very bright sattelite behind the cloud which had lit the cloud with a flare like shape of light, just above the moving cloud was a short chain of lights very close together and equal brightness, several magnitudes fainter than the main bright object (which was brighter than Rigel by a couple of magnitudes) there were other fainter lights slightly above and ahead of the chain. The entire ensemble, cloud and all was moving briskly from west to east and had passed across the sky in less than a couple of minutes. Now if these had been just points of light it would have been striking enough, but to see a huge cloud (as I said, roughly but really a good bit bigger than moon size) moving as well has left me puzzled to the absolute max. I didn't have any meanse of recording it unfortunately, as my description beggars belief I do anticipate a fair amount of sceptisism, but I am not seeking any kind of notoriety or fame, merely reporting what I observed. Later today I will do a sketch based  and post it up, trully, for anyone who knows the night sky well, this was the strangest thing you could ever imagine.

Edited September 5, 2022 by KimG

[Pete Presland]

My guess would be Starlink, the satellites are tightly grouped together initially

 Watch SpaceX launch 51 Starlink satellites and a space tug Sunday night (msn.com)

[Paul M]

I was about to say the same thing.

 

[Steve Ward]

https://www.spacelaunchschedule.com/launch/falcon-9-block-5-starlink-group-4-20-varuna-tdm/

https://www.spacelaunchschedule.com/2022-launch-schedule/

 

 

 

P.S.    The implied profanity in your title is unnecessary and unwelcome on a forum frequented by many young people and is a breach of SGL's Code of Conduct ... 😉

Edited September 5, 2022 by Steve Ward

[RobertI]

2 hours ago, KimG said:

OK , so I have been an astronomer for more than 20 years, seen several comets, all the Messier catalogue bar 1,  A decent number of NGC objects, the space staion lots of times even this morning, starlink chains, iridium flares and meteor showers etc. 

So, at about 5:08 this morning moving at a brisk speed across the southern sky at around 15 or 20 degrees above the horizon was the strangest sight I have ever seen, to the naked eye is was a bight moving cloud about the size of the moon, in my bins there was a very bright sattelite behind the cloud which had lit the cloud with a flare like shape of light, just above the moving cloud was a short chain of lights very close together and equal brightness, several magnitudes fainter than the main bright object (which was brighter than Rigel by a couple of magnitudes) there were other fainter lights slightly above and ahead of the chain. The entire ensemble, cloud and all was moving briskly from west to east and had passed across the sky in less than a couple of minutes. Now if these had been just points of light it would have been striking enough, but to see a huge cloud (as I said, roughly but really a good bit bigger than moon size) moving as well has left me puzzled to the absolute max. I didn't have any meanse of recording it unfortunately, as my description beggars belief I do anticipate a fair amount of sceptisism, but I am not seeking any kind of notoriety or fame, merely reporting what I observed. Later today I will do a sketch based  and post it up, trully, for anyone who knows the night sky well, this was the strangest thing you could 

….. and then you woke up. 😁

Seriously, certainly sounds like you witnessed the Starlink deployment and you describe it perfectly. 

It’s lucky we have such a wealth of knowledge here on SGL, this would be fodder for a panic over an alien invasion anywhere else! 

[KimG]

Thanks Rob , I guessed the short chain of sattelites were starlink, but the rest of it was a mystery, later I thought perhaps it was a destroyed sattelite that formed the cloud, but it must have been some kind of debris from releasing the pack, it was a sight to see for sure, one I won't forget in a hurry!

[KimG]

Sorry about that Steve, I hadn't even intended it to be a profanity, but I guess that's the world we live in now, my bad. Edited out.

[Stu]

26 minutes ago, KimG said:

Sorry about that Steve, I hadn't even intended it to be a profanity, but I guess that's the world we live in now, my bad. Edited out.

Hi Kim. Ironically SGL rules are almost the opposite of the world we live in. Most forums allow profanity but we aim to keep this place free from swearing and other internet norms so youngsters can feel safe here.

Thanks for editing your title, appreciated 👍

[Ouroboros]

….. which makes SGL a very pleasant and civilised place to be. 

[melsky]

I think I have the answer for you 😊

Mel

[F15Rules]

Not more Muskian satellites!🤦🥴.

I have not had one observing session for about 2 years in which I didn't see at least 3 or 4 satellites crossing my field of view - even short sessions of 20-30 minutes.

I'm a visual only observer, so I can grumble and live with it, but I imagine all these additional satellites going up must adversely affect our imaging colleagues? Streaks etc across images??🤔

Dave

[melsky]

On 05/09/2022 at 05:31, KimG said:

OK , so I have been an astronomer for more than 20 years, seen several comets, all the Messier catalogue bar 1,  A decent number of NGC objects, the space staion lots of times even this morning, starlink chains, iridium flares and meteor showers etc. 

So, at about 5:08 this morning moving at a brisk speed across the southern sky at around 15 or 20 degrees above the horizon was the strangest sight I have ever seen, to the naked eye is was a bight moving cloud about the size of the moon, in my bins there was a very bright sattelite behind the cloud which had lit the cloud with a flare like shape of light, just above the moving cloud was a short chain of lights very close together and equal brightness, several magnitudes fainter than the main bright object (which was brighter than Rigel by a couple of magnitudes) there were other fainter lights slightly above and ahead of the chain. The entire ensemble, cloud and all was moving briskly from west to east and had passed across the sky in less than a couple of minutes. Now if these had been just points of light it would have been striking enough, but to see a huge cloud (as I said, roughly but really a good bit bigger than moon size) moving as well has left me puzzled to the absolute max. I didn't have any meanse of recording it unfortunately, as my description beggars belief I do anticipate a fair amount of sceptisism, but I am not seeking any kind of notoriety or fame, merely reporting what I observed. Later today I will do a sketch based  and post it up, trully, for anyone who knows the night sky well, this was the strangest thing you could ever imagine.

Hi Kim

Here’s a link to the video I shot of the G4-20 StarLink deorbit burn, had to move the camera several times to avoid trees as it was a little lower than I expected it to be.

Please watch in 4K

 

[tomato]

16 hours ago, F15Rules said:

Not more Muskian satellites!🤦🥴.

I have not had one observing session for about 2 years in which I didn't see at least 3 or 4 satellites crossing my field of view - even short sessions of 20-30 minutes.

I'm a visual only observer, so I can grumble and live with it, but I imagine all these additional satellites going up must adversely affect our imaging colleagues? Streaks etc across images??🤔

Dave

Thankfully, the very clever artefact/outlier removal algorithms in modern imaging processing software does a great job in removing them.

Now if only it could do the same job with clouds…

[KimG]

Wow that's it, I did a sketch too.  I am so chuffed that you got a video of it Mel, I can show people what it was, thanks so much for posting it up!

Edited September 7, 2022 by KimG

[Froeng]

On 07/09/2022 at 10:34, melsky said:

Hi Kim

Here’s a link to the video I shot of the G4-20 StarLink deorbit burn, had to move the camera several times to avoid trees as it was a little lower than I expected it to be.

Please watch in 4K

 

That is an incredible video. I would be scared if I saw that at night not knowing about starlink! Think "Independence Day"...!