Topic: Something Strange And Planetary Alignments

[GillE]

Two evenings ago we were in the garden when I noticed what appeared to be a small ball of fire appear on the northern horizon, apparently just above some thin cloud cover. Over the next two minutes it moved in a curve south until it was almost overhead, then continued its curved path to vanish over the eastern horizon. There's probably a perfectly logical explanation for what happened but it's beyond me.

Changing the subject totally, does anyone know anything about a planetary alignment that's supposed to be happening over the next couple of days and where it will appear in the sky?

[sam]

It was probably a satellite, that would follow a curved path, and some can be rather bright. Do you know what time it was roughly? I can guess you lat/long and figure out if anything was supposed to be there.

BTW sometimes those hot air candle things, lanterns? gone a bit blank, can look like that.

There is always some kind of planetary alignment, it normally means they are roughly in the same region of the sky. Can be quite spectacular. Not sure about at the moment though, bit out of the loop on amateur astronomy things at the moment.

[GillE]

Can't remember exactly when, Sam - about 21:20 I would say.  Don't trouble yourself chasing it up.  As you say, it was probably a satellite or something of the ilk.

[Clive]

An excerpt from my newsletter may help with the planetary alignment Gill.

On August 1, Mars and Saturn are only two degrees apart with Venus to the lower right after sunset in the west. Over the next few nights, Mars and Saturn separate a bit but Venus moves in closer. On Saturday, August 7, Venus is less than three degrees from Saturn, Saturn is four and a half degrees from Mars, and Mars is just under five degrees from Venus. The next night, Sunday, August 8, Mars has pulled a bit farther away as Venus edges toward the Red Planet, and the trio is still within five degrees of each other. By Monday, August 9, Mars and Saturn are a bit more than 5 degrees apart and will continue to separate. Venus is below and between them.Two other solar system objects are nearby. Mercury is very low in the west and sets soon after the Sun. On August 12 and 13, the slim crescent moon is below and then passes the three target planetsThe Perseid meteor shower is the best meteor shower of the summer, and this year it occurs soon after a new moon, providing nice, dark skies. Late in the evening on August 12 until the early morning hours of August 13 is the best time to view the meteors.

[Clive]

The moving object could have been an aeroplane headlight Gill - especially of you live near an airport.  I see them all the time from my garden.

[GillE]

Thanks for the info about the stars and meteors, Clive.  I'm practically certain I didn't see an aeroplane headlight the other night.  For one thing, I've seen enough aeroplane headlights in my time to be able to recognise them; for another, I've never encountered and aeroplane which can move from the north horizon to the east horizon so quickly.

[Clive]

That rules out that possibility Gill.  The International Space Station has recently been passing over the UK and that is not only moves across the sky quite fast but is also very bright.  You can find out when it will pass over your area by entering your coordinates at
http://www.heavens-above.com/  Sadly it will only provide details of future events. 

[sam]

It does provide past events too... either you click on the link and hit previous or do some changing of the query in the address bar. I'm sure they used to have more obvious past days - I've used this many times to hunt things down.

BTW ISS, is a no go: 09 Aug     10:21:26      10     W     10:24:05     29     SSW     10:26:42     10     SE  was its only pass, in the daytime.

On Monday, the first brightest satellite it lists in the right direction is:
MOS 1 Rocket     3.4      22:12:28      10°      NNE       22:17:13     70°      ENE     22:22:11     10°      S

so assuming I had the timezone right, an hour off (there is only one other event before it).

[Clive]

The website has become more complicated than it used to be!  If it's not a plane or the ISS the only other thing it could be is a fireball, but I think that is most unlikely given the distance it travelled across the sky!  It will be interesting to see if anyone else reports it.

[Clive]

I think your unidentified flying object was probably a Chinese lantern Gill.  I saw one last night as I was driving back home and they move across the sky quite quickly because they are not very high up.  There has been a spate of them recently and you can read all about them HERE

[sam]

yep, that's the phrase I was after - Chinese.

[Simon]

Big, aren't they?

[Clive]

But they appear quite small in the sky.  At present they account for the vast majority of UFO sightings and several countries have banned them because they actually carry a lighted "tea light", which, when they land on a thatched roof or hayloft can cause fires.  

[Simon]

Great!