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Yet another 'what did I see' question.?
I was looking for M1 (the Crab Nebula) through my 15x70 binoculars, observing from Birmingham at around 02:30 (British time) on the 13th September. With the field of view where the nebula is I saw two brief stationary flashes of light. The first was white and about 3rd magnitude I think (magnitude from memory so take it with a pinch of salt). The second a minute or two later, about a degree lower, distinctly greenish and more like 6th magnitude. (Neither, incidentally, was in the exact position of the nebula, which I didn't see.)
I think the brief duration and lack of any motion rules out a satellite. The duration's right for a head-on meteor, but is no observed motion even at 15x magnification likely? The greenish tint to the second looked like aircraft lights, but a nearby aircraft would be visible to the naked eye and I'd normally see the body through binoculars, neither of which were the case, while a distant aircraft would have too slow an apparent motion to see just one flash of its lights as it passed through the field. Thus I don't think a normal aeroplane is likely.
Anything else it might have been?
Tripod mounted, though not the most stable, it could have been shaken when I saw the flashes. The binoculars (Celestron Skymasters) do suffer from internal reflections when viewing the Moon, but I've never noticed them on anything else. The brighter flash being as bright or brighter than the stars around would I think count against it being an internal reflection.
About 30 degrees altitude at the time of viewing, as it happens.
4 Answers
- Larry454Lv 79 years ago
I think that the slow relative apparent motion points to a high flying aircraft. Across a significant distance, these cannot be seen with the naked eye (as they cannot be seen during daylight hours - other than their telltale contrails). If you were looking toward M1 from the UK, you would be seeing it at no higher than about 62 degrees above the horizon. An aircraft at 36,000 ft in such a location would have been about 10 miles away from your observation point. It could well have been 50 miles away, depending on what time you were looking. You may have seen the bright white anti-collision strobe on the fuselage or tail, followed by a glimpse of the green navigation light on the right wing.
ADDED: At an altitude of 35,000 ft, an aircraft at 30 degrees above the horizon would be about 15 miles away.
- GeoffGLv 79 years ago
From your description, I'd suspect a geosynchronous satellite, but the location is wrong. These are normally seen along the celestial equator, not as far north as M1. Any chance it might have been an internal reflection of a star in your binoculars? Were your binoculars on a tripod, or hand held?
