A very bright (magnitude equal to that of Venus, i.e. -4.50) orange/yellow ball moving SE-NE in clear sky. Disappeared after 30 secs
I live in a small village in Normandy, France, about 80 miles west of Paris. I am familiar with night sky, and often enjoy watching satellites go over, particularly the ISS. I subscribe to the “Heavens above” web site.
On the evening of May 16 2012, around 22:50, I was on my patio when I looked up at the sky (almost clear of clouds), hoping to see a satellite or two. It was late dusk, and I could see the Great Bear and Polaris, but the majority of stars were not yet visible.
Some 10°-12° south-east of the Great Bear, probably in Bootes (but I couldn’t yet see its stars), I saw a very bright yellow-orange object moving slowly SE-NW (at about the “speed” of a satellite). Its magnitude (brightness and dimension) was comparable to Venus (which was just above the W horizon at that time), i.e. about -4.5. Like Venus, it did not twinkle, but its edges were hazy. I didn’t hear any engine or propulsion noise (but a commercial jet aircraft went over about 15 minutes later heading SW-NE, and the noise of its engines was very faint).
I thought it was the ISS (but its colour and brightness seemed unusual), and after watching it for about a minute I went inside to collect my binoculars, which took no more than 30 seconds, but when I was back on the patio the object had completely disappeared. I waited a couple of minutes, thinking that it was behind cloud (but I couldn’t see any cloud), then I swept the region with my binoculars, without seeing anything other than the low-magnitude stars not yet visible to the naked eye.
A visit to "Heavens-above.com" revealed that the ISS was not due to pass over my region at that time.
Apart from ball lightning, I was unable to find a “natural” explanation, so I reported it (by email) to the French GEIPAN site. They were very responsive, but concluded that I had seen a satellite (IGS1B) which is out of control, and subject to surges of brightness and is becoming difficult to predict.
In view of the colour and brightness of the object I saw, this does not convince me. I’m not aware of any satellite that is that bright (even the ISS doesn’t usually exceed a magnitude of -2), and its sudden disappearance is difficult to explain, even for an erratic satellite.
After some thought I am posting the report here for your comments.
I live in a small village in Normandy, France, about 80 miles west of Paris. I am familiar with night sky, and often enjoy watching satellites go over, particularly the ISS. I subscribe to the “Heavens above” web site.
On the evening of May 16 2012, around 22:50, I was on my patio when I looked up at the sky (almost clear of clouds), hoping to see a satellite or two. It was late dusk, and I could see the Great Bear and Polaris, but the majority of stars were not yet visible.
Some 10°-12° south-east of the Great Bear, probably in Bootes (but I couldn’t yet see its stars), I saw a very bright yellow-orange object moving slowly SE-NW (at about the “speed” of a satellite). Its magnitude (brightness and dimension) was comparable to Venus (which was just above the W horizon at that time), i.e. about -4.5. Like Venus, it did not twinkle, but its edges were hazy. I didn’t hear any engine or propulsion noise (but a commercial jet aircraft went over about 15 minutes later heading SW-NE, and the noise of its engines was very faint).
I thought it was the ISS (but its colour and brightness seemed unusual), and after watching it for about a minute I went inside to collect my binoculars, which took no more than 30 seconds, but when I was back on the patio the object had completely disappeared. I waited a couple of minutes, thinking that it was behind cloud (but I couldn’t see any cloud), then I swept the region with my binoculars, without seeing anything other than the low-magnitude stars not yet visible to the naked eye.
A visit to "Heavens-above.com" revealed that the ISS was not due to pass over my region at that time.
Apart from ball lightning, I was unable to find a “natural” explanation, so I reported it (by email) to the French GEIPAN site. They were very responsive, but concluded that I had seen a satellite (IGS1B) which is out of control, and subject to surges of brightness and is becoming difficult to predict.
In view of the colour and brightness of the object I saw, this does not convince me. I’m not aware of any satellite that is that bright (even the ISS doesn’t usually exceed a magnitude of -2), and its sudden disappearance is difficult to explain, even for an erratic satellite.
After some thought I am posting the report here for your comments.
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Off
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
France (49.07xx°N, 1.39xx°E)
France
60 seconds
60 seconds
fireball
Occurred : 5/16/2012 22:50 (Entered as : 051612 22:50) Reported: 8/26/2012 12:37:24 PM 12:37 Posted: 9/24/2012 Location: France (49.07xx°N, 1.39xx°E), Shape: Fireball Duration: 60 seconds
A very bright (magnitude equal to that of Venus, i.e. -4.50) orange/yellow ball moving SE-NE in clear sky. Disappeared after 30 secs