Fuzzy light and rings

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Shelby United States of America
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Fuzzy light and rings

#1

Post by Shelby »


I am not sure if this belongs here or not, please move it if this is the wrong place, because I have never posted about anything like this, so I really don't know where it should go.

Okay, so here is the story. Me and my sister were outside walking down our road at around 1am this morning, and everything was normal at first, the sky was clear, the stars were shining bright. No haze or anything in the sky at all.
Then, suddenly, we look up and see this point of light with haze around it moving very slowly in the North, but up a good distance from the ground. We already thought that was weird enough on its own, but it got weirder. The hazy light out of nowhere appeared to eject a ring of haze from itself which was also glowing on its own. After that happened, we didn't know what on earth we were looking at anymore. Clearly, this was not a normal satellite or aircraft. The hazy object continued moving slowly across the sky, while emitting more hazy rings, albeit, smaller than before because it was getting further away at this point. Eventually, the object faded out of view as it was getting farther away and harder to see as well as lower in the sky. All the hazy rings it emitted faded away as well.

I don't want to jump to conclusions and start talking about aliens or anything like that, but I have googled it, and come up with no logical known worldly explanation for it. Has anyone here ever seen anything like this before or heard of someone who has? If so, can you please tell me what on earth we were looking at out there. I can explain most things in the sky, but I have nothing to explain this. I am posting about this here hoping to get an answer to this weird event. Let me know if you have an explanation for what we saw up there.
My scopes: Sky-Watcher 150p (6") Classic Dobsonian (main scope), iOptron SmartStar N114 with GPS (not really used anymore)

My eyepieces: 25mm Skywatcher Plossl, 10mm Skywatcher Plossl, 25mm unknown brand, 9mm iOptron Kellner.

Filters: AstroZap Baadar Solar Film Filter for my SkyWatcher 6 inch, 6" OD Seymour Solar film filter for the N114

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turboscrew
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Re: Fuzzy light and rings

#2

Post by turboscrew »


Weird indeed.
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KathyNS Canada
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Re: Fuzzy light and rings

#3

Post by KathyNS »


I saw another report of what was probably a fuel dump from a rocket body. Spacex launched several Falcon rockets in the last couple of days. Once the upper stage reaches orbit, it dumps any remaining fuel so as not to present an explosion hazard to other satellites.

It sounds like that may be what you saw.
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DSO AP: Orion 200mm f/4 Newtonian Astrograph; ATIK 383L+; EFW2 filter wheel; Astrodon Ha,Oiii,LRGB filters; KWIQ/QHY5 guide scope; Planetary AP: Celestron C-11; ZWO ASI120MC; Portable: Celestron C-8 on HEQ5 pro; C-90 on wedge; 20x80 binos; Etc: Canon 350D; Various EPs, etc. Obs: 8' Exploradome; iOptron CEM60 (pier); Helena Observatory (H2O) Astrobin
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helicon United States of America
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Re: Fuzzy light and rings

#4

Post by helicon »


Kathy's explanation makes a lot of sense. I once saw a curious intense point of light move in a figure 8 pattern over and over again in the evening sky. I was about to chalk it up as one for Project Bluebook. With binos, I discerned that it was a refraction from a searchlight that was bouncing off a thin layer of cirrus clouds that otherwise was invisible.
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Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope
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Re: Fuzzy light and rings

#5

Post by notFritzArgelander »


helicon wrote: Mon Jun 20, 2022 9:34 pm Kathy's explanation makes a lot of sense. I once saw a curious intense point of light move in a figure 8 pattern over and over again in the evening sky. I was about to chalk it up as one for Project Bluebook. With binos, I discerned that it was a refraction from a searchlight that was bouncing off a thin layer of cirrus clouds that otherwise was invisible.
I saw a similarly amusing phenomenon involving near ground fog or smoke. It was an Independence day evening.
Scopes: Refs: Orion ST80, SV 80EDA f7, TS 102ED f11 Newts: AWB 130mm, f5, Z12 f5; Cats: VMC110L, Intes MK66,VMC200L f9.75 EPs: KK Fujiyama Orthoscopics, 2x Vixen NPLs (40-6mm) and BCOs, Baader Mark IV zooms, TV Panoptics, Delos, Plossl 32-8mm. Mixed brand Masuyama/Astroplans Binoculars: Nikon Aculon 10x50, Celestron 15x70, Baader Maxbright. Mounts: Star Seeker IV, Vixen Porta II, Celestron CG5
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