[AstroNet] Bright light in the sky, Tuesday 11 December

[Willie Koorts]

Hi 

Sorry to spam you like this, but there may be a huge influx of calls after this event which I have already got reports of it seen in Clanwilliam, Cape Town and I saw it form Wellington. Because if its huge size, it looked remarkably close, so people are likely to think it was a local event. 

Attached are pictures taken by Greg Roberts - field of view- 7.6 x 5.7 degrees, 135mm f/2.8 lens with FLI CCD camera- exposure 1 second. No processing done. It happened around 20h40. 
ave ever seen -- when it first came into my field of view I thought it was the lights of an aircraft - I could hear one- so I let it pass through the field of view. After a few seconds I thought I had better go and set the mount at the culmination position and sure enough on time came the spectacle!!! Absolutely beautiful !!! Now people might understand why I am so daft and mad about satellites - it is moments like this that make it so rewarding!!!! Greg wrote: "Well I hoped some people had a look - an absolutely fantastic sight!!! Spot on time but we were treated to two objects - the OTV3 craft as well as the second stage rocket but even better was the very bright plume ahead of OTV3 which was due to probably hydrogen venting. I obtained numerous photographs as well as video and will post some tomorrow -- when it first came into my field of view I thought it was the lights of an aircraft - I could hear one- so I let it pass through the field of view. After a few seconds I thought I had better go and set the mount at the culmination position and sure enough on time came the spectacle!!! Absolutely beautiful!!! Now people might understand why I am so daft and mad about satellites - it is moments like this that make it so rewarding!!!! " 

OTV is effectively a mini Space Shuttle. For more information see http://www.mnassa.org.za/html/Jun2010/2010MNASSA..69..Jun.pdf page 102-106. 

Regards 
Willie 

-- 

Mr. W.P. Koorts ( wpk at saao.ac.za ) 
South African Astronomical Observatory 
P.O. Box 9, Observatory, 7935, South Africa 
Tel.(27) (21) 460 9334 Fax.(27) (21) 447 3639 
World Wide Web (Work) http://www.saao.ac.za 
World Wide Web ( Personal ) http://wpk.saao.ac.za 
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