Bright star-like object in geo-stationery orbit around the Moon, Christmas Day night (25/12/2012)

Season's greeting ATS..!!

I saw something quite intriguing the other night - a 'star' appeared near to the Moon, where there has never previously been a star. I expected it was a satellite, and thus that it would go off on a tangent as the night progressed & the Moon moved across its normal path in the sky. I called my children and parents out to look at it - we had just finished a lovely Christmas meal; they agreed it was likely to be an earth-orbiting satellite.

I'm located in the North-West of England (county of Cheshire), and this took place on Christmas Day night. The object was visible from the moment the Moon appeared in the evening sky, and stayed exactly positioned in relation to the Moon all night. It was as bright in the sky as the North Star, and as large as the ISS. It was approx two Moon diameter's distance from the Moon, and was located WSW of the Moon itself.

Despite my expectation that the object would track off across the night sky, in a different direction - anticipating such because it seemed to be a satellite and thus in orbit around Earth (I automatically considered it 'impossible' for the object to be orbiting the Moon) - the 'star' stayed exactly the same distance from the Moon, at exactly the same angle from the Moon, all night.

It was therefore in a geo-stationery 'orbit' around the Moon, and not in an orbital relationship with the Earth.

I travelled a distance of forty miles North from where I first saw it (at my parent's house in Northwich, Cheshire, around 5pm on 25/12) - back to my house in South Manchester. The object was exactly where it had been, in relation to the Moon, on viewing from forty miles away.. I looked at it a number of times during the night of 25/12, and in the early hours of 26/12 - it stayed exactly in position all night, following the Moon like a sheep following its shepherd.

*** *** *** *** *** *** ***

The night of 26/12 came around, and I checked the Moon again - but the 'star/ satellite' wasn't there. Totally vanished, nowhere in sight.

I was baffled, and will be loading up the Stellarium program later (not sure if they archive previous nights) in an effort to see why the damn thing stayed tied to the Moon's orbit, and didn't track off in a different direction as the night progressed, as would have been expected of an Earth-orbiting satellite.

Very odd. Anyone else notice this?

FITO.


PS - I've put it in the Aliens/UFOs forum, as I can't see this having been a natural object - what kind of natural object would tie itself to the Moon's orbit for just one night..?? Symbolically perhaps, it appeared on Christmas Day night, in the year during which so many people expected 'something' to happen. Maybe 'someone' wanted us to know that yes, more revelations & 'signs in the heavens' are to follow, but perhaps not those things that were expected???

PPS - I tried taking photos, but they didn't come out, because my camera is cheap & rubbish, so apologies but no images will be forthcoming (from me at least - I will search to see if anyone caught this on film, and will post images if they are available..)

PPPS - I thought about contacting the British Space Agency to check whether they had an explanation. In fact - I will do just that, as well as contacting the British Air Force. Will post updates as they come.

It was most likely jupiter.

I saw this (In yorkshire) did think it looked funny but I put it down as Venus or another planet, It did move to the other side when I checked it again.

I believe your answer can be found right here:

www.huffingtonpost.com...

I saw the same thing while I was letting the dog out that night. I thought it looked odd and after a couple minutes of googling, found out it was Jupiter. Looked pretty cool anyways.

I saw Jupiter very close to the moon that night as well. It was odd but quite beautiful actually! Both Jupiter & the Moon were very bright, leaving a huge aura ring around them from my view at home. Me and my friends were very impressed with the sight,

reply to post by Junkheap


Many thanks - I will load up Stellarium anyway, to have a look for myself. It was quite special, eh? I'm only very casually a fan of astronomy, as I can't afford a good telescope, and live in an area of high light-pollution, and so can't really see the glories of the heavens first-hand, unless I travel a long distance from home...

Schoolboy error...

In future, check the latest astronomy buzz before making bold statements about 'orbital relationship with the Moon'...


Nice demonstration of Providence though, in my humble opinion...

Happy 2012/13..!!

reply to post by FlyInTheOintment


It was as bright as the North Star? The North Star isn't very bright at all.

Saw it too in Ireland and figured it was one of the planets, very beautiful sight.

Your serious? It was Jupiter.

Here you are, for future reference:

EarthSky

star and flag from me OP for asking.
I seen it and just knew someone else would ask. What I thought at first was as usual another planet like Venus or Jupiter but thought it strange it was only the one night and that the night it was spotted here in north Florida that it appeared at the 11 o-clock position on the moon. And was still located there hours later.

From some parts of the Southern Hemisphere (Southern Africa and Brazil), you would be able to see Jupiter "occulted" by the Moon. This mean that the Moon would pass right in front of Jupiter, covering it for a while.

Here is a thread that has some telescopic videos of this event. The telescopic view is close enough to see Jupiter's colored bands:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

In the first video on that thread, you can even see one of the Moons of Jupiter (Europa) as Jupiter re-emerges from behind the Moon. You can see Europa re-emerging before you see Jupiter.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Thanks for that link to that thread. I would have missed it had you not posted it.
Star for you and star and flag for that thread as well.

It was Jupiter. But thank you guys!!! Keep it up because now you're making my UFO threads look good!

Going off the title of the thread only. I didnt even read the first post but I can tell you that the bright star near the moon on Christmas night was Jupiter.

I'm gald you posted this. I saw it also. I'm in SE Texas and first noticed it about 5PM central time. I figured it was a planet and just haven't had the time to check it out on the Astro. sites yet. When I first saw it, it was still too bright to see any stars and did not expect to see Jupiter in that position at that time of day.

there ya go!

it was christmas day ( i hope you had a nice one ), im sure you and your family were taking photos of eachother at some point ? thus meaning a camera available ,
why didnt you get a picture ?
u know evryone loves a nice picture to go with a good thread

even if it was jupiter , nicley spoted , i didnt notice it im afraid ! but greatfull you brought it to my attention , thanks
shame i missed it

rascal

P,s i missed ur second P.s sorry :/ , explains why you didnt have a picture , oh well , just shows that we all make a little mistakes now and again

Phew...it gave me a "no way" moment too. It was so bright that it looked like it was under the cloud layer as all other stars winked out as the clouds passed except it. I'm in Southern England.