New Horizons (and/or its rocket) observed from Perth, Australia
A fuzzy patch with a bright point was seen by naked eye
Images of NH and the 3rd stage are here
Updated 2006 January 20, 18:30 UT
Since he says there were two objects moving side by side, I think he was seeing the spacecraft and the 3rd stage rocket. After his original message is one he sent below with an animated gif file that shows both the spacecraft and the 3rd stage. - D. Dunham __________________________________________________________________ -----Original Message----- From: Greg Bolt [mailto:gbolt@iinet.net.au] Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 4:51 PM To: Dunham, David Subject: New Horizons spotted over Perth! Hello David, I live in Perth, Western Australia, and just thought I'd send you a message to let you know I saw New Horizons pass over here shortly after launch, as predicted. It was a spectacular sight! Surprisingly for me it looked more like a comet. I was trying to pick it up in binoculars from 19:42UT in Orion, and wasn't having much luck, then my Mother, who was observing with me, noticed a slowly moving fuzzy patch above Orion - it was clearly visible to the naked eye! In binoculars it appeared like a moving fog patch, with a bright point source object on one side (mag approx 5-6), almost at right angles to the direction of travel. Just after we first saw it, I heard the announcer on Nasa TV (could hear this from outside the house) say the 3rd stage had separated from the spacecraft, but still I could only make out one bright point light source. There was also what appeared to be two curving beams coming from the bright object fanning out into the patch - very much like spotlights in fog. The size of this fuzzy patch was about a degree across at a rough guess. Unfortunately I was not geared up to get images of something like this, and it is not easy to accurately describe it's weird appearance. It reminded me a little bit of the appearance of a water dump from the shuttle I saw many years ago over Perth. As it moved over towards the Moon and Spica it was gradually fading, but the nebulous appearance was still visible to the naked eye as it moved into Corvus. Even my Mother could make it out with averted vision. It did quite quickly fade after this though. I then tried to image it with my 10" Meade/CCD and managed to capture some streaks in some images. I followed it until about 20:40 UT, but it was very difficult to see in the later images as morning twilight started to affect the images. The interesting thing about the images is that they appear to show two moving objects of roughly equal brightness traveling side by side. Thanks to yourself, and all others concerned for placing the predictions on the website for locating New Horizons so fast after launch. Without them I would not have been able to track it. It seemed to me they were very accurate, which means New Horizons must be right on course. Like many others, I am hoping all goes well, and we get to see some great results when it arrives at Pluto/Charon and beyond. cheers, Greg Bolt 321 (Craigie) P.S. It seems someone has just rung a local radio station and reported a bright comet in the sky! _________________________ From: Greg Bolt [gbolt@iinet.net.au] Sent: Friday, January 20, 2006 8:58 AM To: Dunham, David Subject: Re: New Horizons spotted over Perth! David, Thank you for your replies and info. In case you are interested, I have attached an animated gif from 4 of last night's images. The combination of thin high cloud, a nearby Moon, and a bright suburban sky background resulted in not so good images - but the twin trail is still obvious. Center Coordinates: RA = 13h 13m 56.75s, De = -11 deg. 53' 09.0" Field of View: 12.7' x 8.5' Exp length = 5 seconds each Exp Mid-times(UT): 1 = 20:15:00, 2 = 20:15:12, 3 = 20:15:23, 4 = 20:15:35 Just curious, will the 3rd stage rocket go into a heliocentric orbit, or is it also on an escape course out of the Solar System? cheers, Greg