Streak of light across Mars.
At approximately 8:30 pm (04/19/14), I was sighting my telescope in on the planet mars. The sun had set behind me (to the west) but the sky was still to bright to see anything in that direction, thus I was looking easterly. At the time I was looking through a 40 mm lenses and using an 80mm telescope which gives approximately 10X magnification. At this magnification mars fills about ½ the visual field.
This is when something transited from right to left (south to north) through the field of view at what appears to be Mars’s equatorial region. This is to say, it was observed in the field of view beyond Mars and passed somewhere between earth and Mars, exiting my field of view well past Mars. Indicating it was NOT on Mars, but between Earth and Mars. (Perhaps, this object was in Earth orbit?) This pass lasted for only a fraction of a second and the object appeared white (I am color blind, but it appeared white to Mars’s red body with white polar caps as I see them.) This object was tiny, almost appearing as a grain of sand. I immediately pulled my head back to see with my unaided eye, but saw only Mars. (Note: no other planets nor stars were yet visible due to the fading sunset.) My binoculars (25X70) were next to my telescope, so I grabbed them and scanned the area but saw nothing. The object was gone.
At this point, I ruled a lenses flair, the angle of the sun and my telescope was incorrect. Due to the recent freezing temperatures, there were no insects flying around and insects have never been visible to me through that level of magnification. I considered a satellite, but the orbit seems wrong and the app on my phone did not show any satellites in that vicinity.
I am not entirely certain this was a craft…I do not know what it was, but if others saw this, I would like to validate their sighting.
At approximately 8:30 pm (04/19/14), I was sighting my telescope in on the planet mars. The sun had set behind me (to the west) but the sky was still to bright to see anything in that direction, thus I was looking easterly. At the time I was looking through a 40 mm lenses and using an 80mm telescope which gives approximately 10X magnification. At this magnification mars fills about ½ the visual field.
This is when something transited from right to left (south to north) through the field of view at what appears to be Mars’s equatorial region. This is to say, it was observed in the field of view beyond Mars and passed somewhere between earth and Mars, exiting my field of view well past Mars. Indicating it was NOT on Mars, but between Earth and Mars. (Perhaps, this object was in Earth orbit?) This pass lasted for only a fraction of a second and the object appeared white (I am color blind, but it appeared white to Mars’s red body with white polar caps as I see them.) This object was tiny, almost appearing as a grain of sand. I immediately pulled my head back to see with my unaided eye, but saw only Mars. (Note: no other planets nor stars were yet visible due to the fading sunset.) My binoculars (25X70) were next to my telescope, so I grabbed them and scanned the area but saw nothing. The object was gone.
At this point, I ruled a lenses flair, the angle of the sun and my telescope was incorrect. Due to the recent freezing temperatures, there were no insects flying around and insects have never been visible to me through that level of magnification. I considered a satellite, but the orbit seems wrong and the app on my phone did not show any satellites in that vicinity.
I am not entirely certain this was a craft…I do not know what it was, but if others saw this, I would like to validate their sighting.
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Lexington
USA
1 second
1 second
38.01
-84.46
other
KY
Occurred : 4/19/2014 20:30 (Entered as : 04/19/14 20:30) Reported: 4/19/2014 10:09:25 PM 22:09 Posted: 4/24/2014 Location: Lexington, KY Shape: Other Duration: 1 second
Streak of light across Mars.