Post by George on May 7, 2009 11:36:10 GMT 10
Sogoln, I'm hoping this is maybe something you might be able to shed some light on (so to speak)...
Some of you may be aware that I've been spending increasing amounts of time at Aurora over recent months.
For those who aren't aware of it, the Province of Aurora is the name of the Empire of Atlantium's sole extra-territorial land holding, and the site of its capital, Concordia, which is located near the top of an open hillside, 515 metres above sea level.
Aurora is 0.76 km2 in size - roughly twice the size of the Vatican City State, and half the size of Monaco, and is located in a quiet pastoral district about 320km (via road) and 200km (as the crow flies) southwest of Sydney.
Currently I'm spending 3-4 days a week there, where I'm engaged in a range of construction projects in and around Concordia.
Anyhoo... one of the benefits of Aurora is that the nearest town of any size is located 50km away - and the nearest major city well over 100km... so there's usually very little light pollution obscuring views of the night sky (although under certain atmospheric conditions, the glow of Sydney is still discernible above the northeastern horizon).
All of this means that I tend to pay a lot of attention to what's going on in the night sky while I'm in residence at Aurora... which is how I first noticed the presence of some rather odd lights which appear in the heavens there, from time to time.
The basic details of this phenomenon are as follows:
1. They are incredibly bright - 4-5 times brighter than anything else in the sky apart from the moon. Bright enough even to cast faint shadows on a moonless night during occasional bursts of light - and certainly bright enough to draw the attention of someone looking in the opposite direction via peripheral vision.
2. They tend to appear at 15-20 degrees above the horizon - although they can appear as high as 50 degrees. On the most recent occasion one of them passed through about 30 degrees of the sky (from 20-50 degrees) in a period of 10-15 minutes - too fast for a planet/star, too slow for a satellite.
3. They usually appear over the southern horizon - and less commonly over the western or eastern horizons. I've never seen one anywhere near the northern horizon.
4. They appear to "dance" - often quite vigorously - around a fixed point in the sky.
5. They sometimes appear to rapidly change colour - from yellow to red to green, in no discernible order. Other times they remain resolutely twinkingly yellow.
6. They periodically appear to emit extremely bright flashes of light.
7. There is usually only one visible in the sky at any one time - however on one occasion I have seen two of them at once - one above the western horizon, and one above the southern.
8. They can last for 2 or more hours; usually I get bored watching them and go back to bed, while they're still visible.
9. They usually appear an hour or two after sunset or before sunrise - but I've also seen them at around midnight-1am - many hours after/before dusk/dawn. I'd automatically assume they're weather balloons were it not for this detail.
The good news is that yesterday I managed to get some decent photographs of the latest manifestation of the phenomenon, which I present for analysis and comment.
These pictures were all taken at between 4.30 - 5.00 am yesterday (Wed 6 May, 2009), using a hand-held digital SLR camera fitted with a 75-300mm zoom, set on a fairly low magnification.
Given that these were taken in total darkness, using the camera's automatic settings, without the aid of a tripod, I'm pretty amazed at the resulting images.
The Photoshop "contrast" function has been used to enhance the visibility and colour of... whatever it is... but no other digital enhancements or modifications have been applied to these pictures.
Please also note that the two red dots to the left of the main image subject appear in exactly the same place in every picture; they are therefore either camera artefacts or dust on the lens, not celestial objects.
I should also point out that the slight lightening on the right side of these pictures is not the pre-dawn glow of the sun, but leakage from the only source of artifical light present in my immediate vicinity at the time - the glow of a kerosene heater positioned several metres behind the open doorway I was standing in:
This last picture was taken on the lowest possible magnification, and the image has been resampled in order to enlarge it to a useful viewing size:
Is it a weather balloon? ...the International Space Station? ...an Iridium satellite? ...something else?
Some of you may be aware that I've been spending increasing amounts of time at Aurora over recent months.
For those who aren't aware of it, the Province of Aurora is the name of the Empire of Atlantium's sole extra-territorial land holding, and the site of its capital, Concordia, which is located near the top of an open hillside, 515 metres above sea level.
Aurora is 0.76 km2 in size - roughly twice the size of the Vatican City State, and half the size of Monaco, and is located in a quiet pastoral district about 320km (via road) and 200km (as the crow flies) southwest of Sydney.
Currently I'm spending 3-4 days a week there, where I'm engaged in a range of construction projects in and around Concordia.
Anyhoo... one of the benefits of Aurora is that the nearest town of any size is located 50km away - and the nearest major city well over 100km... so there's usually very little light pollution obscuring views of the night sky (although under certain atmospheric conditions, the glow of Sydney is still discernible above the northeastern horizon).
All of this means that I tend to pay a lot of attention to what's going on in the night sky while I'm in residence at Aurora... which is how I first noticed the presence of some rather odd lights which appear in the heavens there, from time to time.
The basic details of this phenomenon are as follows:
1. They are incredibly bright - 4-5 times brighter than anything else in the sky apart from the moon. Bright enough even to cast faint shadows on a moonless night during occasional bursts of light - and certainly bright enough to draw the attention of someone looking in the opposite direction via peripheral vision.
2. They tend to appear at 15-20 degrees above the horizon - although they can appear as high as 50 degrees. On the most recent occasion one of them passed through about 30 degrees of the sky (from 20-50 degrees) in a period of 10-15 minutes - too fast for a planet/star, too slow for a satellite.
3. They usually appear over the southern horizon - and less commonly over the western or eastern horizons. I've never seen one anywhere near the northern horizon.
4. They appear to "dance" - often quite vigorously - around a fixed point in the sky.
5. They sometimes appear to rapidly change colour - from yellow to red to green, in no discernible order. Other times they remain resolutely twinkingly yellow.
6. They periodically appear to emit extremely bright flashes of light.
7. There is usually only one visible in the sky at any one time - however on one occasion I have seen two of them at once - one above the western horizon, and one above the southern.
8. They can last for 2 or more hours; usually I get bored watching them and go back to bed, while they're still visible.
9. They usually appear an hour or two after sunset or before sunrise - but I've also seen them at around midnight-1am - many hours after/before dusk/dawn. I'd automatically assume they're weather balloons were it not for this detail.
The good news is that yesterday I managed to get some decent photographs of the latest manifestation of the phenomenon, which I present for analysis and comment.
These pictures were all taken at between 4.30 - 5.00 am yesterday (Wed 6 May, 2009), using a hand-held digital SLR camera fitted with a 75-300mm zoom, set on a fairly low magnification.
Given that these were taken in total darkness, using the camera's automatic settings, without the aid of a tripod, I'm pretty amazed at the resulting images.
The Photoshop "contrast" function has been used to enhance the visibility and colour of... whatever it is... but no other digital enhancements or modifications have been applied to these pictures.
Please also note that the two red dots to the left of the main image subject appear in exactly the same place in every picture; they are therefore either camera artefacts or dust on the lens, not celestial objects.
I should also point out that the slight lightening on the right side of these pictures is not the pre-dawn glow of the sun, but leakage from the only source of artifical light present in my immediate vicinity at the time - the glow of a kerosene heater positioned several metres behind the open doorway I was standing in:
This last picture was taken on the lowest possible magnification, and the image has been resampled in order to enlarge it to a useful viewing size:
Is it a weather balloon? ...the International Space Station? ...an Iridium satellite? ...something else?