Report of tonights Oberving :)

[Astorix]

Evening all

Well we have been graced with another beautifully fine and clear evening here in west sussex! So made the most of it with a hour long walk with the Bino's

Also, My younger brother of 17, has recently had a major operation and been bed ridden for about 2 and a half weeks now. However over the last few days he is feeling better and managed to come for the walk with me tonight which was really lovely!

He too has always been interested in astronomy however never really studied it in too much detail. Tonight however, i managed to show him Mars, M44, Venus, the wonderful moon at the moment! Orion, Leo and Ursa Major which he can now locate all on his own just after one night!

Now, 2 queries!

First is it me or is Sirius really flickering a lot at the moment?

and secondly. About 21:45, My brother spotted something moving across the sky very quickly, he told me and i looked up in time to see a large white ball of light, probably about as bright as Mars, and as big moving from the southern horizon and passed straight through Orion and then above the moon into the distance.

At first we thought Plane, but aren't all flights grounded at the moment due to the Volcano in Iceland?

Also i looked at it through the Bino's and there were no flashing green or red lights?

Any one have any ideas what this could be?

[AztecastroMcJ]

nice report

being newbie myself found its great to show family and friends were planets are

they, like me this time last year, they dont realise a bright star is a planet

Sirius does flicker alot noticed this myself

prob due to being low in sky i think

possibly ISS u seen or iridium flare satelitte

http://www.heavens-above.com/

u can input ur details and

check on above at various times past and present

hope this helps James

[Astorix]

Hi james, thanks for th reply:) i checked out the website and you're right, i think it is a satellite of some sort, not sure what!

[barkis]

Sirius as well as being a very bright star, is also of low declination, and as such, is viewed through a whole lot more of earths atmosphere. The atmosphere of ours is rarely still, and is the cause of the stars scintillating colours. I believe the explanation to be termed atmospheric dispersion.

The bright light could well have been a satellite, and some are quite bright. The International space station can often be seen, but I'm not sure if it is over the UK at this time.

There are a number satellites named Iridiums, and these rotate, and on occasion can give rise to an Iridium flare, whereby they brighten considerably due to their solar panels reflecting the sunlight down to earth. There is a website where you can check if these events are due to occur, and times are given to let you observe them.

The flare does not last too long, but the can be imaged with a fixed camera with a wide field lens which will show the satellites track across the sky, and the gradual brightening to a maximum, the the fade away again.

Ron.

[Nexus 6]

Hi to all on SGL,

Good advice given from barkis, I have wondered what Sirius must look like from a lower latitude,as its the brightest star in the night sky. To see Sirius along with Orion,a lot higher in the night sky must look pretty cool. At my latitude (53 deg), it always stays pretty low on the horizon,at culmination it gets no higher than 10 deg or so above my horizon, still looks amazing even with all the turbulance.

Would be great to see it from the Earths equator

Clear skies

Alan

[Sam]

Hi to all on SGL,

Good advice given from barkis, I have wondered what Sirius must look like from a lower latitude,as its the brightest star in the night sky. To see Sirius along with Orion,a lot higher in the night sky must look pretty cool. At my latitude (53 deg), it always stays pretty low on the horizon,at culmination it gets no higher than 10 deg or so above my horizon, still looks amazing even with all the turbulance.

Would be great to see it from the Earths equator

Clear skies

Alan

From my place Sirius and Orion sit quite a lot higher than when I observed them in the UK. Sirius certainly dominates the sky and Orion sits quite high in the North. Canopus is the other really bright one in the south at the moment.

Astorix, sounds like you had a very nice evening - I think Ron has pretty much nailed what you saw by the sound of things.

[Astorix]

Thanks for the commetns guys! yeah it is nice to see Sirius along side Orion:)