Anyone seen this?..

Post by **Airconvent** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 1:35 am

From the pic, confirmed it is not a planet or a satellite.
The detail and contrast is too good and the sphere too perfect. As per Charlie's view, it is likely a weather balloon....the Met service regularly release such balloons in the evening (not sure why). I've seen it many times as a bright object with same magnitude as Venus but by the time I get to my scope, its gone....

rich

fizzy123 · Post by **fizzy123** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 11:02 am

Looks veri much like venus.

:roll:

Post by **weixing** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 11:41 am

Hi,

From the pic, confirmed it is not a planet or a satellite.
The detail and contrast is too good and the sphere too perfect. As per Charlie's view, it is likely a weather balloon....the Met service regularly release such balloons in the evening (not sure why). I've seen it many times as a bright object with same magnitude as Venus but by the time I get to my scope, its gone....

Airconvent may be right... the outline are just too perfect to be Venus.
Weather balloon will be the next most possible object..

Have a nice day and happy Chinese New Year!

ChaosKnight · Post by **ChaosKnight** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 12:09 pm

I suppose a weather balloon may be possible.....
Anyone knows the phase of Venus when this photo was taken? From the photo the phase is clearly visible. It's a possible way to rule out it was venus.

Kelvin · Post by **Kelvin** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 1:48 pm

i disagree with the weather balloon theory if it remain there really slow, they rise up fast and usually are out of sight fast, i too don't think it's a low orbit satellite too, I seen something like that before near the moon one day, around 6:35pm in my spotting scope it looks like a dot . at 60x power. I though my scope is giving me problem !! haha

Kamikazer · Post by **Kamikazer** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 12:45 am

i dont think its venus...(though i'm newbie)
i remember that venus would never be angularly far from the sun...

Post by **Airconvent** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 3:08 am

fizzy123 wrote:Looks veri much like venus. :roll:

Definitely is not Venus.
Venus is still in her Gibbous state and even if we can catch her at full phase, it would be too bright. Furthermore, Venus is that bright dot you see low in the west at sunset and it does not move that quickly...process of elimination....

Post by **acc** » Sun Jan 25, 2004 8:01 pm

Its a weather balloon...

chrisyeo · Post by **chrisyeo** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 1:11 am

FlyingFrog,
Can I ask what set up you used to take the picture? It's superbly large and clear!

CC,
I haven't seen a weather balloon before but I don't notice any instrumentation hanging down from it. Should'nt there be something observable hanging down in the photo?

Chris

Kelvin · Post by **Kelvin** » Tue Jan 27, 2004 6:58 pm

I agree, he must be a pro astrographer !