Palm Springs CA, Take a look at this phote my son took

reply to post by jessemole



That's definitely a rocket launch. They can be quite spectacular at night---the trail of exhaust is hot and glows and there is interaction with the thin atmosphere at high altitudes.

It is "twisted" much more than typical aircraft contrails because it is going up with the rocket and meeting various layers of the atmosphere which have different wind directions & strengths.

reply to post by jessemole


Missile test

Missle? Yes, it was a missile. I saw the missile arc up, descend, then flame out. From my vantage point, it was as clear as a bell to the naked eye.

Now, regards my vantage point, here is a trigonometry quiz for anyone who feels like wasting a few minutes. My vantage point is at an elevation of 6,000 feet above sea level. The missile was purported to have been fired from a location 230 miles due south of my vantage point. I estimate that from my vantage point the contrail appeared at 15 degrees above the apparent horizon.

What altitude did the contrail first appear at?

Oh. Mea culpa. The location where the missile was fired from is located at an elevation of ~6,400 feet.

reply to post by DJDigitalGem


Yep. I've been wondering the very same (hence my posting a trigonometry quiz to determine what altitude the contrail first appeared at).

Originally posted by Brown Bear
Now that pics are provided I realize that I also witnessed the phenomenon and felt it was so unusual that I mentally kicked myself because my camera is in the repair shop.

It didn't appear to be over Phoenix but more to the south (over Tucson from my vantage point), high but at cloud level, and illuminated by sunlight at about 5:30am before the sun popped into view over the mountains.

I doubt that it was a rocket smoke as it did not dissipate but remained complete with relatively sharp lines and in full view for nearly an hour and also doubt it was an interface between wx systems because of its irregular shape and pointed edges. There were no lines to and from it either

It was impressive because I've never seen anything like it before and my thought at the time was that a riff between dimensions (or some such) would look exactly like that. But when nothing else happened I stopped watching except for the occasional glance

I don't have a clue but will watch for more as both weird and cool.

They're shooting rockets over Arizona???

edit on 15-9-2012 by Brown Bear because: (no reason given)

edit on 15-9-2012 by Brown Bear because: (no reason given)

edit on 15-9-2012 by Brown Bear because: (no reason given)

I'm going to respond to my own post above in order to add the following:

I looked out my living room window and saw it immediately. From my south angle it appeared low but it was certainly East of me and East of Tucson, and thus, well East of Phoenix. At first I thought it was a cloud edge in the early light before sunrise but there were no other clouds around. It remained in place and did not dissipate or willow away as one expects with a normal cloud. Nor did it change at all when the sun came up 30 minutes later as it retained the sharp edges throughout. After that I stopped watching and how it was seen in California is a mystery to me because it was clearly and noticeably pictured in my north facing LR window as I've described. The unique thing was the jagged angles of the (cloud) which remained sharp and pointed, more like a fabric tear.

The US military claimed Thursday's event was the result of three missiles it test-launched (one Juno booster rocket was allegedly taken out by two Patriot missiles). But they got their stories crossed when they later claimed that the Juno booster rocket "returned to base", an absurd claim given that such rockets do not "return" anywhere! This later addendum to the official story may have been required to pacify hundreds of calls made to law enforcement agencies across the Southwest by residents reporting that part of the meteor or comet fragment had broken apart and crashed-landed somewhere between northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.

Apparently there is still some confusion as to what it may have been...

As usual no one believes what the officials try to say it is....

reply to post by relocator


I don't blame them for not believing. Again, I'll agree with the claim that it was a missile, but, beyond that, the whole thing is kind of..."off"?

Employing very conservative figures regards tangent (1,000,000 feet) and degrees above the horizon (6), from my vantage point the contrail appeared at 100,000 feet of altitude. The claim has been made here that this is due to the event happening at sunrise, and that may have had some bearing if, say, I were looking west.