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Salvia_Antics
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Weird star?
#7389971 - 09/09/07 10:08 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Tonight i saw a star that was quite bright and then i started to get smaller and dimmer and smaller and dimmer until it vanished.
What was it?
It also seemed to move a little but that could have just been me.
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"The dream is dreaming itself"--Kalahari Bushmen
Edited by Salvia_Antics (09/09/07 10:09 PM)
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hairybear
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occultation
it must have been pretty sweet to watch lol....but i still have no idea as to what it was maybe it was a star billions of lightyears away that a planet went infront of while in orbit causing the light to go away....that link is the only thing that i could find that was close to what you decribed
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Diploid
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Most likely a satellite. You caught a specular reflection off some surface and as the satellite's orbit took it into darkness on the night side of the planet, it faded, then disappeared.
If you look around, there are programs that take the orbital elements released by NASA (numbers that describe an orbit) and predict when and where in the sky each satellite will become visible.
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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Salvia_Antics
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Re: Weird star? [Re: Diploid]
#7390430 - 09/10/07 12:48 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Seemed to big to be a satellite. And wasn't moving fast enough if at all.
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"The dream is dreaming itself"--Kalahari Bushmen
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero



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> Seemed to big to be a satellite. And wasn't moving fast enough if at all.
And you are basing this off of what you think it should look like, or do you have experience as an amateur astronomer?
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Salvia_Antics
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Re: Weird star? [Re: Seuss]
#7391104 - 09/10/07 08:48 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Im basing it off that i saw many satellites that night. And yeah im sorta an amateur astronomer.
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"The dream is dreaming itself"--Kalahari Bushmen
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Asante
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Perhaps the star was being blotted out by an asteroid.
A star doesn't just go out in a matter of a few minutes.
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Seuss
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> And yeah im sorta an amateur astronomer.
Then I have no idea what you saw. Depending upon the orbit of a sat, it may not appear to move at all. However, the light intensity of the sun reflected by the sat can vary quite quickly, giving it the illusion that it is winking into our out of existence. Assuming you recorded the azimuth and elevation angle, we can easily look up the info to see if anything was in the vicinity at the time.
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Salvia_Antics
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Re: Weird star? [Re: Seuss]
#7391420 - 09/10/07 10:49 AM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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This is at ~9:20pm 9/9/07 Looking north. The azimuth would have been around 353 degrees 36.573' and altitude 24 degrees 33.934'. This is only the general area in which i saw it because i was just gazing at the stars from a hot tub. The numbers are from a program called starry night. And the only two satellites i see in that area are FORMOSAT 3F at 9:55pm and METOP-A at 9:02pm. Although there maybe more im not seeing.
Edited by Salvia_Antics (09/10/07 11:02 AM)
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Ego Death
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When I was out fishing, there was a really bright star in the sky.
The other stars were dim compared to it.
The star was there for about 4 hours. As I was watching it, it decided to travel of and over the horizon.
Honestly, I don't think even top astronomers can explain half the strange stuff going on up there.
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Diploid
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The International Space Station was just fitted with a huge new solar array. If you're standing in the right place on Earth, you can catch a broad-on direct specular reflection of the sun making the space station easily the brightest "star" in the sky for several seconds. Then as the angles change, the reflection of the sun vanished.
Amateur astronomers have been observing the same thing, though not as bright, shining off the Hubble Space Telescope since it launched. It's surprisingly bright.
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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Seuss
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Re: Weird star? [Re: Diploid]
#7392491 - 09/10/07 03:59 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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> The star was there for about 4 hours. As I was watching it, it decided to travel of and over the horizon.
Probably a planet... venus usually looks like a very bright star, but if you watch it for a whlie, it will move slowly while "other" stars are stationary.
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Salvia_Antics
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Re: Weird star? [Re: Diploid]
#7392514 - 09/10/07 04:05 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Quote:
Diploid said: The International Space Station was just fitted with a huge new solar array. If you're standing in the right place on Earth, you can catch a broad-on direct specular reflection of the sun making the space station easily the brightest "star" in the sky for several seconds. Then as the angles change, the reflection of the sun vanished.
Amateur astronomers have been observing the same thing, though not as bright, shining off the Hubble Space Telescope since it launched. It's surprisingly bright.
The ISS doesnt seem to orbit where i am. But yeah i have no idea what i saw but it was sweet to see anyways. There are a couple satellites that fly past there at that time but they seem to be going to fast. So yeah.
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Ego Death
Justadropofwaterinanendlesssea


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Re: Weird star? [Re: Seuss]
#7392762 - 09/10/07 05:05 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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It was completely stationary for approx 4 hours, after that it took off very fast.
There are difficulties in me explaining to you speeds of distance objects, through words on a message board but essentially it appeared completely stationary then took off at a great speed. The speed being roughly the same at which you would see a satellite passing the heavens.
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cleeen
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Re: Weird star? [Re: Ego Death]
#7401804 - 09/12/07 06:34 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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At the tail of a mi8ld winter the mention of sitting in a hot tub looking at the stars seems like a mighty good idea i must say .
How much "time" passed while you were observing the dimming?
btw i agree with the comment that there is much more going on out there than the professionals deal with . I was watching a presentation by the ground crew data specialists from Hubble(inc) and they mentioned explicitly that the main issue from there perspective was what to do with all the data/info they were gathering. That the data far exceeded the use rate. They went on to propose ways to release more of the data from hubbles observations to the public essentially so that it could actually be looked at with purpose rather than just growing into an ever increasing pile of unattended data .
-------------------- It's a beautiful lie .. It's a perfect denial . Such a beautiful lie to believe in So beautiful, beautiful it makes me .. Nikopol: You piece of shit! Your objectives are shit. Your filthy rapist god ambitions are shit. You're full of shit, Horus! Horus: Coming from a human, remarks like that don't carry much weight. Nikopol: But all that it is not worth of prodigy of your saliva, Jill.
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Salvia_Antics
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Re: Weird star? [Re: cleeen]
#7405112 - 09/13/07 04:53 PM (16 years, 4 months ago) |
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Um the "star" was there for awhile. The only reason i noticed it was because it was quite bright and then started to dim over around minute till nothing.
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"The dream is dreaming itself"--Kalahari Bushmen
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