[ARCHIVED THREAD] - I just saw something in the sky that boggled my mind like nothing else. What was it? (Page 2 of 3)
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Quoted: It's fuzzy because that wasn't the first burst of gas you saw. Probably saw the launch vehicle and the satellite together. SpaceX had a launch today so you probably saw the first orbit just now.  /this When I saw a launch from Vandenberg (?) I freaked out. It was an alien invasion as I had never seen anything like it. It didn't help that it was about 30 minutes past sunset and I was walking the dog in the darkening desert west of Area 51.  As the boosters (?) separated they spiraled (?) and created a beautiful cloud that appeared seemingly out of nowhere and that grabbed my attention, then a solid white line as the second stage (?) lit off it's booster (?) and then a string of tiny pearls started coming out of the thing. I was far enough into the desert that there was no cell service so I was WTF? When I returned to civilization on Sunday I checked and found the launch news and even a couple of photos that looked like what I had seen from 50 miles away. |
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Quoted: Yeah, that's a given, I thought it was too obvious to even mention. Attached File |
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Quoted: Well I think it’s cool seeing the same thing about the same time that far apart hate I missed it  I was danged lucky to see it, I just stepped outside to take care of something, looked at the moon and Jupiter next to each other and admired the beauty, and then saw the satellite, and noticed it was odd. But hey, if you don't want to miss the next amazing thing that we in this continent won't see again for 100 years, don't miss the April 8th total solar eclipse. I saw the one in 2017, and it was the most awe-inspiring thing I've ever seen, other than perhaps Hyakutake or Hale-Bopp. It's only a few hours away from West Virginia. I just pray that the skies are clear that day. FYI, a partial eclipse is to a total eclipse as a go-cart is to a sports car. It's not worth seeing unless you are in the path of totality, a very narrow path, and then it's mind-bending. |
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Quoted: It's fuzzy because that wasn't the first burst of gas you saw. Probably saw the launch vehicle and the satellite together. SpaceX had a launch today so you probably saw the first orbit just now. Likely the post deorbit burn propellant venting. I will check the pass for you soon. The pass went through Orion (west to east) at about 6:18 PM CDT. That time may be off about five minutes so knowing the time will help me. If you can give the time close to a minute it will help when it comes by here in 20 minutes. The larger object was the second stage. There were six satellites deployed. |
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Quoted: Likely the post deorbit burn propellant venting. I will check the pass for you soon. So that was the second stage de-orbiting after dropping its satellite? Makes sense. The smaller object following it, I guess, must've been the satellite it was putting into orbit. The outgassing event was right before it went behind Earth's shadow, so I couldn't tell if it was moving away from the smaller object. |
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Quoted: I was danged lucky to see it, I just stepped outside to take care of something, looked at the moon and Jupiter next to each other and admired the beauty, and then saw the satellite, and noticed it was odd. But hey, if you don't want to miss the next amazing thing that we in this continent won't see again for 100 years, don't miss the April 8th total solar eclipse. I saw the one in 2017, and it was the most awe-inspiring thing I've ever seen, other than perhaps Hyakutake or Hale-Bopp. It's only a few hours away from West Virginia. I just pray that the skies are clear that day. FYI, a partial eclipse is to a total eclipse as a go-cart is to a sports car. It's not worth seeing unless you are in the path of totality, a very narrow path, and then it's mind-bending. Cool I’ll look into that thanks. |
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Quoted: Shadow entry about 18-20 degrees above the horizon due east. I used Indianapolis since I don't know your approximate location. I'm SE Indiana, but that still follows, it definitely was around 20 degrees above the horizon when it disappeared, and just slightly north, almost exactly east. Thanks for the info! |
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Quoted: I saw the same thing. It was east of my location in SW Virginia. I went to FlightAware, found nothing. It was surreal, just like OP described it. It first appeared to be a bright star behind fog but then it expelled a gaseous cloud which appeared to be below it. From my perspective it appeared to be stationary or moving very slow. Then it faded from view. Yeah, that's exactly what I saw, except it wasn't stationary, it was just slower than what I'm used to seeing satellites travel. Was it somewhat to the north? |
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Quoted: Using my phone compass, it was east southeast from where I was standing. Huh. I guess the margin of error based on my non-calculations and possible memory inaccuracy could account for that. I went back outside and tried to remember, and it may have been further south and on a trajectory less northward than I had remembered. |
@OP
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 Scary Movie 3 Alien Sightings |
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Quoted: I was outside, and I happened to see a satellite, but it was foggy, while all the stars were perfectly clear. It was pretty bright, probably about 0-1 magnitude, and it was followed perfectly by a smaller satellite about 3 magnitude, about 1/3rd of a degree away from the main satellite. Again I reiterate, the satellite was hazy, while the stars were perfectly clear. It seemed to be moving more slowly than I would have expected a satellite to travel, but I could be wrong about that. Then suddenly it put out a burst of gas that was most certainly an extremely high-altitude or outer space major outgassing event that spread in a sphere like a bubble. Eventually it went behind the Earth's shadow and disappeared. By that time the outgassing bubble had expanded to about 2 degrees in diameter at least. I have no idea what I witnessed, but it was something very, very unusual. The International Space Station and likely a re-supply ship coming or going. |
Was this it, OP?
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Quoted: Was this it, OP?
I'm pretty sure that was it. The small object next to it, and the outgassing, and it disappearing behind Earth's shadow right after the event. I just remembered the outgas bubble being more equally distributed around the object, rather than moving in more of a particular direction, but I could be wrong about that detail, it was pretty far away at that point. I'm pretty sure that's the same exact event. The angle of the smaller object to the movement was also identical, the small object was opposite and slightly offset to the direction of the larger object. |
| I just saw the same videos on X a few minutes ago and wondered what the hell I was watching. It's pretty cool now that I've heard the explanation. You guys all better get used to seeing really cool shit in the sky cause we're gonna have a lot more of it going on in the near future. |
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Quoted: The horizon? Not the horizon. The Earth casts a shadow, and if an object goes into that shadow it disappears, because we can only see satellites if they're in sunlight. For example, if it's midnight, the sun is directly below us, and we're in the middle of the Earth's shadow, and any satellite orbiting above us is also in that shadow, and we can't see it. We can pretty much only see satellites right after sunset or right before sunrise, when we're in nighttime but objects very high in the sky are still seeing the sun. |