Hot Tub Astronomer

[Jabbermocky]

I wish I could back that statement up -- but I can't. Other than the Big Dipper, Orion and the Moon after years of observation my retention of names for constellations it sorely lacking. I am lucky, however, in being able to see a lot of the sky at night from my back yard without the high-degree of light pollution experienced in the bigger towns and cities. I have become familiar with with conventional aircraft appearances -- as one of the flight paths for Calgary International Airport is to the south of me. I have also become familiar with satellite patterns -- especially Iridium-type and the International Space Station.

I have a strange tale of the other evening of star watching from my hot tub, north-east of Calgary.

I have seen these kinds of aerial ‘objects’ previously. They are very bright objects that 'strobe' white light as they cross the sky. The unusual thing is the frequency of the strobing the bright light appears for only a half a second or so -- but remains off for an extended period, 10 – 20 seconds. Its brightness is equivalent to that of the Iridium satellites of a summer. I don’t consider this to be conventional lighting pattern for aircraft, and as it doesn’t begin dim brighten and then dim again, but continually switches on and off — it cannot be (IMHO) a satellite catching the Sun.


Just strange phenomena? Well, it gets stranger. I was sitting facing east in my hot tube as there’s one point in the sky (NE) where I’ve seen a few strange things happen. When I saw the first strobe of this same moving object. It was travelling dues south, across my vision from left to right. Having experienced this before, I thought I would slide around to the north side of the tub so I could watch it going down-range and try to estimate the frequency of the strobing. I was expecting to see it move further down range and away from me, when the object strobed again but was moving from left to right of me again. In the time it had taken to reposition myself — a few seconds, the object had made a 90 degree turn–still not a conventional motion for aircraft or satellite. I didn’t see a third strobe — and I was watching for one for the next minute or so.


Other things I’ve seen starting from that quadrant of the sky was an orange light that appeared, grew large and then dimmed out. I tried to explain it to myself as my witnessing a meteor enter our atmosphere directly in line of my vision — so that I couldn’t see its tail, yet could see it burn up and disintegrate. Made sense; but two nights later, in almost exactly the same spot, I saw the same thing again — but this time a white light. I concluded that the odds of the same occurrence taking place twice, two nights apart– with the angle and position of a meteor being directly in line with my viewing position — is unlikely.

Perhaps someone else may have seen the same or an explanation for what I witnessed?

 

[ondafritz]

I have never seen anything outside the norm.
So open that brew, get in the hot tub, and welcome the visitors in for the evening.

 

[Jabbermocky]

Still lots more to see while immersed in my own filth (Seinfeld reference) at a 102 Degrees.

Last week, on consecutive nights (both times approximately 11 p.m.), I saw what must have been satellites -- but doing something I had never noticed any satellites do before. Out there high above the Earth are two satellites that cross the sky in unison. They could be hundreds of miles apart, I suppose, at that distance from the Earth; but they passed overhead at the same speed, holding the same distance between them the entire time they were in view. They were slightly off-range from one another. My first thought that they could be communication satellites, where one was going out of service as another (that had previously been parked) was taken over service -- before the former was going off-line (or losing its altitude). In my experience, Iridiums orbit either north-south or south-north and they are the more common type. These were different in that on the first night they were traveling from SSW to NNE and the following evening the second night they were traveling in a WSW to ENE. The explanation could be as I described -- but again, to see this rarity on two nights in a row is quite strange in my experience.

This weekend there was another strange aerial phenomena that both my wife and I observed. It was a south-north traveling object. At first, (yet again -- am I boring you yet with this one), it appeared to be an Iridium (or other similar-style of satellite) reflecting the Sun light over the horizon. Whereby, normally, it would fade back to a dim object crossing the skies. However; this one actually rippled, or quickly pulsated very bright white light along its length (so it appeared to be cylindrical or rectangular to the observer) and was more as if emitted the light rather than reflected it. It displayed this rippling effect for about a second or two (enough time for my wife to see it, her then to point it out and for me to see it too). Any takers on what conventional object that could be. I've seen the ISS many times -- never traveling in a S-N direction, and never being able to ripple any lights along its length.

 

[Xylo]

Jerry, having spent months at sea on the open ocean, I've done quite a bit of stargazing/skywatching. Now this was back in the late 1980's through 1991, so my memory isn't really the clearest.

I do remember seeing satellites in orbit, streaking meteors, high altitude aircraft and the occasional light that seemed out of place. But nothing too extraordinary. Probably the coolest thing I ever saw though was the B52s flying to strike Iraq/Kuwait in the opening salvos of Desert Storm. Not that I saw them, actually, but I saw them blocking out the starlight as they flew past.

The one thing that startled me the most though was something I saw while I was at the beach one year. I was looking at the night horizon and I saw a dozen or more dimly lit objects traversing from my right to my left (in a generally northward direction.) I watched them for about 10-15 seconds...my heart beating fast and a lump in my throat. Then I realized what I had just seen... Seabirds flying by, with the lights from the shore reflecting off of their white feathers. I had a good chuckle over that.

 

[Jabbermocky]

Hot tub update. Tonight was the first warm evening of the year (after a cold, cold Alberta winter). I took my usual place in the hot tub's lounger which looks due east (the other west). After only a few minutes of laying there, a flash of white light cuaght me eye in the vicinity of the sky close to where Saturn was (at that time). I thought perhaps it was a regular star catching my eye -- as they do in your periphery from time to time. But no; there was no star. Then, another flash of light; a plane travelling east with just a white light flashing (I surmized). I waited for the next flash, and it came but it was no further west then when I had seen the first flash. I smiled at my own miscalculation and waited for the next flash to appear slightly to the east. The flash came but it was no further east. I came to the conclusion that it must be stationery or travelling slowly in one direction or another. The next flash was different from the others. It was like a fine piece of illuminated wire, not very long but had a dim blue glow about it with slightly brighter blue light at intervals along it (like elelctricity running along bare wire and arcing at the points where the wire was twisted or bent). Then another 'regular' flash; again it did not appear to have moved in relationship to everything around it, but this time slightly dimmer, Then another, dimmer yet, until a very dim fine point of light on the next flash and I never saw another after that. From my perspective it appeared to be travelling up and away from me -- the light getting dimmer as it ascended. Well that's how it happened. In the meantime two satellites crossed the same area of sky and two meteors after that. Whatever it was it was none of those more familiar night's sky visitors; very peculiar indeed.