Something caught over Hawaii.. What could it be?

On the night of 2004 December 17, the fisheye CONCAM perched on top of an active volcano in Haleakala, Hawaii, saw something moving across the night sky that remains mysterious. The NSL team might have disregarded the above streak as unconfirmed, but the Mauna Kea CONCAM on the next Hawaiian island recorded the same thing.

Not sure what this is, but it seems to have everyone mystified.

antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov...

yea, this is on the APOD

I like to know a little bit about the camera.. becaue it looks like there is prolonged exposure, and the object takes about 20 minutes to travel about 140 degrees of sky. did it stop or disapeared before and after the GIF?

also what was it's magnatude and did it have shape?

It COULD be a slow plane with landing lights on

there is a lot of information that is lacking and needs to be answered before we can know for sure

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything further by searching.

My best bet is that it's an asteroid. There's a lot of them, and occasionally they streak on by. It could be composed of something reflective, and they don't always go by real fast.

Until more info I really don't know though.

Are there any public Near Earth Objects and Space debris trackig databases, that we could question with local time and coordinates to find a possible match for such observations????


[edit on 14-2-2005 by Countermeasures]

there was an eye witness to this, said it was twice the size of the moon and had fuzzy edges (looked at it with a telescope) and there was also a light that tracked with it.

Probly dumped fuel. I suppose you could try a triagulation with the 2 observatory cameras and see if you can figure out its alitude

I dont know if its just me or should the East and West on that map of the sky should be switched or is it because they took it from Hawaii.

Originally posted by Jehosephat
there was an eye witness to this, said it was twice the size of the moon and had fuzzy edges (looked at it with a telescope) and there was also a light that tracked with it.

Probly dumped fuel. I suppose you could try a triagulation with the 2 observatory cameras and see if you can figure out its alitude

It could have been exaggerated, which is what happened in my opinion. Also, if it were twice the size of the Moon it would have been twice the size of the moon in the image and not the size it is. The fact that that was exaggerated so greatly made me not believe much else of what was said.

Also, it could depend on what type/size of telescope the observer used. As well as thier knowledge of the workings of the telescope. They could have used far too much magnification, causing the object to be fuzzy. If the telescope was a cheap one that was bought at a place like Walmart (or almost any other large store like that), then the optics of the telescope could be rather crappy. This could cause a reflection in the telescope, creating the effect of another light following it.

Originally posted by Killak420
I dont know if its just me or should the East and West on that map of the sky should be switched or is it because they took it from Hawaii.

It doesn't matter, honestly. You can tell that the directions are in the right places though because the stars are moving from east to west in the image.

EDIT: Forgot to include response to Killak420's question.

[edit on 2/14/2005 by cmdrkeenkid]

consensus is fuel dump from AMC-16 rocket launch
bb.nightskylive.net...

Supafly:


Thats the kewlest avatar I have ever seen. They make a screen saver like that?

UNR1721B

Hey Alan, I'd say the streak may be Classified Bird.
The USA RARELY registers it's Classified Military Satellites with the UN (which they are REQUIRED to do under the UN Convention on Registration of Outer Space Objects (1975) and UN Resolution 1721B (1961).
If they do inform the UN, they usually provide WRONG or "erroneous" information about their true orbits (be the orbit Geostationary, or not). A common trick by the USA is to provide PARKING ORBITS and not the FINAL ORBIT details.

So, respectfully, there are many more satellites "up there" than are found on the "Heavens Above" Site.
I found a "Triple Formation" a couple of years ago, when observing in S-W Tassie, and that "Group" is STILL NOT recorded anywhere in the Public Domain.

This is an example of how us "Amateurs" find the Covert Birds;
From;
www2.gwu.edu...
"But despite MISTY'S intended stealthiness, when the shuttle placed it into orbit, four civilian space observers--Russell Eberst, Daniel Karcher, and Pierre Neirinck in Europe and Ted Molczan in Canada--were able to determine that the satellite was in a 494-by-503-mile, 65-degree orbit, an orbit that did not match any other U.S. military spacecraft. In addition, the civilian observers were able to monitor a series of maneuvers performed by the satellite--including the "explosion" that may have been a tactic to deceive those monitoring the satellite or may have been the result of the jettisoning of operational debris."

In my experience captured "Streaks" are usually these Birds, and NOT UFOs/ULOs. My reasoning behind this, is that there is no Wake left my genuine UFOs/ULOs.