My daughter began texting me from Arizona last night just before sunset. She wanted to know what the super bright object in the northeast was. It was brighter than any star, kind of triangular in shape, and was not moving. I told her that there was nothing in the northeast that was bright, ever. It got dimmer as the sun set and was gone when it got dark. I correctly identified the object, and my diagnosis was verified by images sent to the news station in Phoenix. Then what was it? Here is a link that has the answer. https://www.facebook.com/CBS5AZ?hc_location=timeline You'll have to scroll through a bunch of posts, but you'll see the answer. ________________________________ From: Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 3, 2013 3:34 PM Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] OT: Weather balloons Not a reflection of the sun. I saw this thing only a few hundred feet up when first spotted, it had barely been released. The sky was still dark and the sun way below the horizon at 5:05 AM. Whatever I saw had an orange on-board light. It was clearly seen. The only other possibility is if it was illuminated from the ground by a spotlight, but I'm sure I would have seen the beam. I was only about 1/4 mile away from the estimated release position. On Tue, Sep 3, 2013 at 3:05 PM, Patrick Wiggins <paw@wirelessbeehive.com>wrote:
Hi Chuck,
Here are data on this morning's launch:
http://www.calsky.com/?Balloons=&interval=0.125&station=72572&tdt=2456538.96...
I don't think they carry lights but maybe what you saw was the Sun reflecting off the orange equipment hanging below the balloon.
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