Beneath
Part 12 – The Object
Starseekers Central
Forums – Reports
Tell Me I’m Not Going Crazy
- by Skyquest4eva – posted July 19 – 1900
Hey folks, Skyquest here with something really odd. Last few nights have been perfect for stargazing, uncharacteristically cool for this time of year, not a cloud in the sky. Four days ago I took a drive a couple of hours west to DV and set up at my favorite spot. I had a couple of targets, but wanted to start with Jupiter after last weeks botched photo.
As I’ve mentioned before in these posts I take a potluck approach to astronomy – you need to come prepared with a target in mind of course, a destination, but I’m a big believer in enjoying the journey. It’s a big sky folks – gotta stop and smell the roses. Sometimes it pays off, usually it doesn’t, and sometimes, like right now, it maybe drives you a little crazy.
Refresher – Jupiter: Az: 156.8°; AH 24.6°/ RA 14’43”; Dec-15°. That night I decided to start at Dec -25° and move up .15° at a time, see what I see. First 12 stops are uneventful, nothing of any significance. But stop 13, that’s -23.05° for those of you who don’t do much math, I see this insanity.
LINK: RA 14’43”; Dec -23.05° – July 15th
Obviously I disregard it immediately as interference, step away from the telescope and scan the sky for whatever aberrant light source is ruining my evening. Thing is, there’s nothing around for miles, the valley is famously dark and famously empty and tonight’s no different. Looking up with the naked eye I don’t see anything that would be causing that kind of visual anomaly. I look again and it’s still there and at this point I’m left with no choice but to believe that this ridiculous thing I’m looking at really exists. Once I get done pissing my pants in excitement I snap the photo above.
At this point I have some opinions about what this thing is, maybe a comet, probably an asteroid, although the brightness is just astounding. Nothing really makes a lot of sense, but there it is, right? Anyway, I spend the rest of the night looking around, half interested, and decide I’m gonna come back in the next night and see if this magic thing had moved.
Two days later I’m back in the valley, same spot, same time, same awesome weather, and I set my sights on the same location – Az: 156.8°; AH 24.6°/RA 14’43”; Dec-23.05°. I see this.
LINK: RA 14’43”; Dec -23.05° – July 16th
Nothing. The thing, whatever it is, is gone. At this point I’m tempted to chalk the whole experience up to the vicissitudes of space and optics and luck. It was probably I think some fleeting extra-solar explosion, or a momentary, perfect reflection of sunlight on a freakishly polished face of a passing asteroid of no significance to anyone. I mean, this kind of thing happens all the time, we’ve all experienced it. You see something amazing, never see it again, no explanation. That’s the sky for you.
Except, no matter how much I try, I just can’t let this one go for some reason. I just have this gut instinct, you know, that it’s more than just a random anomaly. So I do the only thing a crazy person like me could do in that situation, I decide to methodically scan the area around the original coordinates. I figure if the thing is still out there and actually as bright as it looked than it should pop up pretty quick. I decide to look within .01° shifts in declination up to .2° in either direction, and then repeat that search in .01 minutes of RA within the same range. Again for the mathematically disinclined that comes out to 1600 total stops. I figure I have about 3.5 hours from astronomical darkness before I lose the general area to the horizon so I get going.
About 3.4 hours into this search, to my shock and awe, I find it again.
LINK: RA 14′,43.19”; Dec-23.24° – July 16th
The new coordinates, and I’ll just use RA and Dec now, were: RA 14′,43.19”; Dec-23.24°. So it had moved down and to the left of Jupiter. Moreover, and I’ve since confirmed this digitally, it was even brighter than the night before.
Now you all know me, I don’t like to make announcements or ask for other people to waste their time confirming my findings unless I’m really pretty sure there’s something special to look at. Well, I’ve gone back to DV for the last three nights and tracked this thing in the night sky. It’s location has progressed steadily in the same trajectory every 24 hours.
LINK: RA 14′,43.27”; Dec-23.32° – July 17th
LINK: RA:14′,43.62” Dec:-23.73° – July 18th
But more importantly, it’s brightness has increased steadily in that time, averaging about a 35-55% increase in luminosity during each 24 hour period. It’s now so bright that it’s hard to get a approximation of the objects size or shape, but the diameter of the central portion of the light is about 2 miles in length.
Which brings me here. TL:DR: There is an object that I’ve tracked the last three nights that is travelling at an odd trajectory, is perhaps 2 miles at its widest, and is getting progressively brighter in the night sky. Personally, it seems to me the only the only interpretation is that thing is approaching the Earth at remarkable speed.
Currently it is 1900 in Las Vegas and I am going to head back out tonight. I’m hoping I’ve whetted the appetite of some of you sky-fiends. Anyone care to take a gander? Last known coords were RA:14′,43.62” Dec:-23.73° – using my estimates we can anticipate it’s likely location tonight.
Fingers crossed you guys find nothing and I’m just loosing my mind over here. Fingers crossed.
RE: Tell Me I’m Not Going Crazy
- by Cancerminor15 – posted July 19 – 2300
Uh… you’re not crazy. Oh, and holy shit.
Dude, couldn’t resist, went out and checked the area around last known location and I found it man – I say again – Holy. Shit.
Man, I don’t even know how you managed to keep this to yourself for four days. The increase in size is, I mean, it’s ridiculous. The trajectory is ridiculous. It seems big enough to be affected by Jupiter’s gravity but from what I can tell I agree with you, it’s making a bee line for us. I mean, I just don’t know how else to interpret it. Someone should report this thing man.
Current Location RA:14′,43.69′ Dec:-23.81°
RE: Tell Me I’m Not Going Crazy
- by star:Dgazer – posted July 19 – 2325
You guys are about to piss your pants. I almost pissed my pants, so there’s no shame in it – just fyi.
So I’ve got a dish set up in my backyard, nothing special, old 80s rig I re-purposed. I see Skyquest’s post, my interest in piqued. I see Cancerminor15’s post, figure, why the hell not, and plug in the coords, take a listen.
I think the recording speaks for itself. Quality’s not great.
LINK: Object Signal Recording
Unless we’re all losing our minds, together, this thing is out there and it is making noises that sound pretty damned familiar. Someone NEEDS to report this to NASA, but it ain’t gonna be me.
RE: Tell Me I’m Not Going Crazy
- ADMIN – July 19 – 2333
THIS THREAD IS CLOSED.
USERS Skyquest4eva;Cancerminor15;star:Dgazer are permanently banned from the forum.
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