| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"Lord Calvert" |
| Date: |
02 Jul 2004 02:17:26 PM |
| Object: |
AA OT - What did I see? |
I posted this in alt.astronomy (which I don't usually view or even lurk) but
since I know there are a few astronomy addicts here I thought I'd repost it
here and see what you think.
Subject: What did I see? Pons-Winnecke?
From: forlornh@aol.complicated (Lord Calvert)
Date: 7/2/2004 1:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id: <20040702130914.16895.00000597@mb-m20.aol.com>
I'm not a contributor here or even a lurker but I thought I'd ask some help on
something I unexpectedly saw last week.
Date of viewing: 26 June 2004
Approximate time: Roughly 2130 EDT. I did not have a watch with me and did not
indicate the precise time. I was at a drive-in theatre with my children and
some friends.
Location: Town of Lockport, NY
Description: From approximately due west I saw what appeared to be roughly 5-6
objects traveling very slowly in a SSE direction. The entire transit took about
6 minutes where it disappeared from view. Magnitude at brightest I would
estimate at -10 at roughly SSW of Lockport. They were not in any sort of
"formation" nor do I believe that this was a UFO or other type of sighting. The
course was perfectly straight however it did appear that it was shattering into
pieces the longer it was in the sky.
Speculation: What I thought I was seeing was the breakup of a satellite or a
high-altuitude aircraft. As the objects traveled, they seemed to split into
smaller parts, leading me to believe that this was some sort of disastrous
re-entry into Earth atmosphere. I shortly turned my car radio to news stations
to hear if it was some sort of disaster but there was no mention. It was
clearly visible to the roughly 2000 people at the large drive-in.
I read on the www.space.com website that this could probably be the breakup of
the Pons-Winnecke comet. The time indicated in the article does correspond
roughly with the time it was seen. I am skeptical that an old cometary breakup
would be so bright and travel so slowly across the sky but with the lack of
news regarding a man-made disaster I don't know what else could possibly be the
culprit. It was certainly not typical of the June Bootids.
So, I ask the group, was this Pons-Winnecke or was it something else?
The article I'm refering to in my post is here:
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/bootid_meteors_040618.html
Rich Goranson, Amherst, NY, USA (aa#MCMXCIX, a-vet#1)
EAC Department of Applied Rattan Use
"Without faith we might relapse into scientific or rational thinking, which
leads by a slippery slope toward constitutional democracy." - Robert Anton
Wilson
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| User: "Walking on Glass" |
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| Title: Re: AA OT - What did I see? |
02 Jul 2004 08:12:55 PM |
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And it came to pass that forlornh@aol.complicated (Lord Calvert) did
write in alt.atheism, news:20040702151726.16895.00000608@mb-m20.aol.com:
I posted this in alt.astronomy (which I don't usually view or even
lurk) but since I know there are a few astronomy addicts here I
thought I'd repost it here and see what you think.
Subject: What did I see? Pons-Winnecke?
From: forlornh@aol.complicated (Lord Calvert)
Date: 7/2/2004 1:09 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Message-id: <20040702130914.16895.00000597@mb-m20.aol.com>
I'm not a contributor here or even a lurker but I thought I'd ask some
help on something I unexpectedly saw last week.
Date of viewing: 26 June 2004
Approximate time: Roughly 2130 EDT. I did not have a watch with me and
did not indicate the precise time. I was at a drive-in theatre with my
children and some friends.
Location: Town of Lockport, NY
Description: From approximately due west I saw what appeared to be
roughly 5-6 objects traveling very slowly in a SSE direction. The
entire transit took about 6 minutes where it disappeared from view.
Magnitude at brightest I would estimate at -10 at roughly SSW of
Lockport. They were not in any sort of "formation" nor do I believe
that this was a UFO or other type of sighting. The course was
perfectly straight however it did appear that it was shattering into
pieces the longer it was in the sky.
Speculation: What I thought I was seeing was the breakup of a
satellite or a high-altuitude aircraft. As the objects traveled, they
seemed to split into smaller parts, leading me to believe that this
was some sort of disastrous re-entry into Earth atmosphere. I shortly
turned my car radio to news stations to hear if it was some sort of
disaster but there was no mention. It was clearly visible to the
roughly 2000 people at the large drive-in.
I read on the www.space.com website that this could probably be the
breakup of the Pons-Winnecke comet. The time indicated in the article
does correspond roughly with the time it was seen. I am skeptical
that an old cometary breakup would be so bright and travel so slowly
across the sky but with the lack of news regarding a man-made disaster
I don't know what else could possibly be the culprit. It was certainly
not typical of the June Bootids.
So, I ask the group, was this Pons-Winnecke or was it something else?
Comets would not appear to break up that fast (you say the transit was 6
mins - 'transit' implies travelling across the sky as you viewed it?). A
comet breaking up would appear to happen over a period of days, and the
position of the comet in the sky would not change much in this period.
This suggests what you were viewing was in a low earth orbit - most
satellites are visible for a couple of minutes, in my experience. A re-
entry sounds most likely - there is a lot of stuff of there, and it all
has to come down at some point...
--
Walking on Glass (remove NOSPAM to email me)
AA #2053 Zymurgist #12
"If you want to save your child from polio, you can pray or
you can inoculate...Try science"
Carl Sagan - "The Demon-Haunted World"
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| User: "Carol Lee Smith" |
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| Title: Re: AA OT - What did I see? |
02 Jul 2004 03:53:00 PM |
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On 2 Jul 2004, Lord Calvert wrote:
So, I ask the group, was this Pons-Winnecke or was it something else?
The article I'm refering to in my post is here:
http://www.space.com/spacewatch/bootid_meteors_040618.html
Geeeez. I don't know.
You are dangerously close to that community where all of the woo woo folks
live, no? What is the name of that town with all of the "crossing-over"
types hang out?
" ... the real difference between liberals and conservatives in this
country is that conservatives think sex is very, very important and
liberals think sex is essentially trivial. ... " --Jane Haddam
http://www.janehaddam.com/chd/sex.html
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| User: "Lord Calvert" |
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| Title: Re: AA OT - What did I see? |
03 Jul 2004 12:25:54 AM |
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Geeeez. I don't know.
You are dangerously close to that community where all of the woo woo folks
live, no? What is the name of that town with all of the "crossing-over"
types hang out?
I believe you're refering to Lilydale in Chautauqua county. Lockport (in
Niagara county) is roughly 70 miles away from there with a major city (Buffalo)
in between the two.
http://www.lilydaleassembly.com/
Rich Goranson, Amherst, NY, USA (aa#MCMXCIX, a-vet#1)
EAC Department of Applied Rattan Use
"Without faith we might relapse into scientific or rational thinking, which
leads by a slippery slope toward constitutional democracy." - Robert Anton
Wilson
.
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