G'day George, I wish I had some documentation to rely upon, but do not. I
have a feeling that it was in the winter period down here, though, I do seem
to remember being cold, and standing on the platform, instead of sitting and
freezing my backside off. The object was already incandescant when it caught
my eye. I think perhaps I caught the last moments of the display, the
breakup etc.
Keeping in mind folks, I often watch satellites in the sky after the Sun has
set, they are travelling at leisurely and recognisable pace or velocity
relative to the star background. Re-stating, I have never seen a meteor
travelling at the same slow pace, they are always much quicker.
In the meteor videos I have watched, the bolide and its children are still
traveling faster than that which I saw that night. But, then again, it was
very low on the horizon, and no doubt much further away, this may have
reduced it's apparent velocity greatly.
Kevin, VK3UKF.
>>Kevin wrote:
> The thing I saw, was comparable to an aircraft at a distance. But did
not
> traverse the entire sky, it was perhaps only 10-20 degrees parallel to
the
> horizon, it didn't move or cover much more than the general direction
of
> looking to the North.<<
Marco>>Now, indeed with a 20 second duration this DOES sound like a
satellite decay for
a change. :-)<<
I personally have never heard of anyone reporting a re entering satellite
that lasted only 20 seconds. But I have heard of meteors lasting well over
20
seconds before extinguishment (such as the 1972 Grand Teton around 101
seconds
and the Peekskill Fireball lasting 40 seconds). Low on the horizon, a
meteor can appear slower than at the zenith due to the further distance
involved.
It can also appear even slower if the meteor was traveling in a direction
that was slightly heading either toward or away from an observer rather
than
from a true left to right (or right to left :O)). If this was a satellite
that
lasted only 20 seconds before burning up...it will be the first for me to
hear
of such a case. Until the short 20 second life span can be explained, my
money is still on a meteor. I wonder what month this occurred?
George Zay
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