Lights in the Sky
Sydney Observatory often receives reports from the public about mysterious and unexplained sightings in the sky. Many of these are fireballs, which are small rocks from space hitting the Earth’s atmosphere at high speed and burning up brightly as they reach the denser parts of the atmosphere about 30 or 40 km above the ground. Others turn out to be aeroplane vapour trails, ‘dump and burn’ manoeuvres by Air Force aircraft, satellites, weather balloons or even, as on 19 February 2007, exploding rockets.
We invite you to report your observations here. Other people may wish to comment on your observations if they have seen the same object or seen something similar at another time.
When leaving your observations please give as much detail as you can including
- Where you were
- The time
- The direction you were looking (north, east, south, west or in-between)
- How high up you were looking (horizon is 0° elevation, half way up is 45° and directly overhead is 90°)
- How long you saw the object
- The direction the object was moving
- Whether it was clear or cloudy
- Whether you could see the Moon or Venus or any other astronomical object
- Describe what you saw
Thank you
725 Responses to “Lights in the Sky”
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adz on December 5th, 2009
Sat 5th Dec,ballina Nsw, Midnight, i was staring up into a perfectly clear sky, no clouds in my area bright stars and moon really clear.. I was facing east towards the coast, when just above the treeline, probably at a 40 degree angle from the horizon was a bright white flash almost bigger than the moon in the shape of a ball.. like someone was taking a photo.. it was one of the strangest things i have ever seen.. no sound and it only lasted for a split second, it was so bright it startled me.
I can confirm it was not a meteor as it didn’t travel in any direction, was not an explosion of any kind, there are no lighthouses, and was not lighting.. i watch storms alot, and have never seen antyhing like this..
Anyone else see this??
Karen Bramich on December 11th, 2009
Friday 11/12/09
Tonight in Toogoom Qld, on the coast Luci and I were lying on the driveway looking at the sky facing south we saw west of the saucepan close to 75 80 degrees the same thing like someone had used a flash on a camera, extremely bright and both of us pointed at same time.Extremely curious for any answers as to what it was.
Cheers
Nick Lomb on December 12th, 2009
Hello Karen. You may have seen an Iridium flash. Check the Heavens Above webpage.
Alex Town on December 12th, 2009
Some time this morning, must have been between 7-11am, i woke up and looked out my window in sydney, which faces east, there were absolutely no clouds in the sky, but i saw what i can only describe as a fireball heading towards the earth relatively far off in the distance. I’m guessing a meteor? It was amazing to see.
Al on December 12th, 2009
At 22:27 above Pennant Hills three lights, which appeared to be satellites in formation, were observed by ourselves and our visiting guests (8 people in total). The lights (satellite-size, speed and brightness) were travelling from south to north, directly overhead. There were two lights in parallel leading at the front with one trailing at roughly triple the distance behind in the middle… like three points of an elongated triangle. Surrounding stars were seen between these points as the formation passed, so it wasn’t a solid object. The lights remained in this formation throughout and were observed until they seemed to “disappear” (into the Earth’s shadow?). None of us had seen satellites in formation before. Is that what we saw? 5 mins later (at 22:32) we saw a single satellite travelling in a north-westerly direction.
Louie on December 19th, 2009
Last night in Warragul at around 21:30, sitting in the backyard looking south, at angle of about 10 degrees, a ball of white light flashed to earth. whether it went over the horizon or not, i was unable to tell as it dissapeared from view behind a distant neighbours house.
in size, from my perspective, it’s diameter was slightly bigger than that of the sun. it was clearly a ball of something burning as it’s edges were flaring.
it flashed to earth/horizon from 10 degrees in less than half a second. was very fast moving for it’s size, suggesting it was relatively close. however i cannot explain it suddenly appearing so close to the earth…
Karen Bramich on December 28th, 2009
Cheers Nick thanks for the response :)
spooky on January 6th, 2010
jan 4 2010 israel beit shemesh monday night i was sitting at my computer playing a game when suddenly my room lit up like there was a car head light but there are not any cars there so i looked up to the east and saw the most weird thing i have ever seen before it looked like a star or fire ball coming straight to my window it became as big as a basket ball i was sure it would crash but then it just extingushed i saw smoke when it went out a few seconds later i heard a bang
spooky on January 6th, 2010
i forgot to add the time it was about 2:18/2:25 i saw it pretty long at least 45 seconds it did not move very fast it sounds weird but it looked just like in the movie meet dave (eddie murphy) when the boy saw the fire ball!
Dylan Craig on January 11th, 2010
I just saw a bright light with a tail head across the sky. Looked like a shooting star but seemed too close and had a thick tail that looked like a trail of sparks. Was in Mornington Victoria looking towards the dandenongs so north east i guess. Occurred at approx 12:20-12:25 am tonight 12/1/10.
Tam on January 12th, 2010
on jan 9th 2010 at about 9 or 10 pm 3 of my friends and myself decided to take the dogs to the park across the road from my house in bellingen nsw..it was a hot night nd a very clear star filled sky! when we got to the oval we looked at the sky, at first i thought saw a shooting star until all 3 of my mates had seen the same thing and we relised it wasnt..there were 3 star like things moving through the sky but quite slowly and as if driven..we watched these things split from their group nd apear to drive around the sky for a good 10 minutes before we scared ourselves and headed home! im still trying to think of a
logical explanation for this but havent heard anything..its a little daunting knowing that there had to of been more then us 4 who lookd up that night and nothing has been reported! ive truly never seen anything like it nd when we finaly worked up th courage to go outside again that night nd look up they were gone!
Terry on January 15th, 2010
I also saw the bright shooting object like Dylan Craig, which resembled a meteor entering the earth’s atmosphere (in a movie I once saw). It was very eerie; I was talking with my house mate outside the back door, around 12:20am, 12th January 2010 in Mulgrave Victoria.
The flaming ball burst from the sky (from the west) above his head. It appeared to burn up on entry then die out a little then burn up again to a tiny little spec of light. It head towards the foot of the Dandenong’s to the east approx. It happened so quickly but was long enough to point out and my house mate turned to see the last bit. Very Cool Indeed…!
Ric on January 17th, 2010
Sunday night 17th Jan 2010, time approx 21.59 – 22.00 hours.
I am just south of Campbelltown NSW noticed a very very bright Flash to the NNE at about 60 degrees from horizon.
After the flash I watched as what appeared to be a satellite continued on across the sky travelling North to South roughly.
I have checked Heavens Above website but there is no Iridium Flares scheduled for anywhere near this time.
Can anyone tell me what it was I saw.
Thank You
Ric
Sean on January 22nd, 2010
Hello,
Just checking to see if there were any other witnesses for a fireball meteor that fell over Minneapolis (vicinity of the airport) at about 8:40 local time in Minneapolis and also to relate the sighting to other organizations that may be interested in retrieving potential fragments.
I am an amateur astronomer from upstate NY that witnessed the fall from a commercial Canadair 700 craft that was in a holding pattern (Delta Airlines flight 6427 from Cincinnatti to Minneapolis – operated by COMAIR DBA Delta) over or around the Minneapolis airport.
I usually would not report seeing one to any official organizations except in special cases – but this was EXTREMELY close to the aircraft. An amateur pilot I was travelling with (who I later tried to get to gauge the distance I guessed that it fell from the aircraft) estimated it to be within 5-10 miles of the aircraft, perhaps even less. On my left I could see aircraft taking off and coming up through the clouds as they gained altitude from take-off and at the time of the event the fireball actually fell in-between that line of departure traffic and my flight.
As I was in the plane I can only say that I was able to see the waxing crescent moon just prior to the sighting – but the plane had turned while in holding pattern and the moon was not in view at the time of the sighting, I have no coordinates nor star field to give for the fall. However it fell at almost 90 degrees straight down right off of the left wing.
The sighting lasted for about 4 – 5 seconds. I saw fragmentation of about 5-6 pieces (3 of which happened at “eye level” out of the window) before it disintegrated just above the cloud deck (which was very low that evening). It seemed that some small pieces may have been able to impact the ground as it disintegrated at such a low altitude.
It was so close to the aircraft that I could see separation in coloring (white with blue edges along the train and also along the trailing edges of the meteor “head”) and from my viewpoint in the plane it crossed below the horizon and I actually had to reposition and look down and out of the window to see it disintegrate just above the cloud deck.
To my knowledge, no one else on the aircraft saw the event (maddening) but was wondering if it may have been reported by any pilots or other civilians that were taking off at that time. It seems that perhaps a meteorite recovery team may be able to yield fragments if they work with the airport tower to determine the placing of flight 6427 at about 8:40-8:45 pm that evening (January 19th, 2010). Since the fall was nearly 90 degrees straight down the area of the potential fall site would be fairly specific I would think.
Thanks for spreading the word!
Sincerely,
Sean South
deni on January 24th, 2010
Hi, I saw a big green glowing thing near Glaydsdale in vic on around 12am on the 14/15 jan 09, its was visible for about3-4 seconds glowing green with a trail of glowing “stars”, think it was travelling roughly west to east?.wow! it was amazing:)
deni on January 24th, 2010
hi again meant 14/15 jan 10
SarahA88 on January 28th, 2010
I saw a shooting star this morning (28 Jan 2010) on my way to work at Sydney Airport just after 6 am. i saw it for a couple of minutes it was the coolest thing ive ever seen.
Steffers on January 31st, 2010
Saw a low meteorite tonight. Spectacular! Location 52.03.48.92N 2.07.18.73W (UK). Time approx 21.00GMT. Looking North, straight up (90 deg). Saw the meteorite from approx location Capella, heading East to West, for about 4 to 5 seconds. Very broad, yellow trail, compared to normal slim and white. About 30 deg from western horizon it flared and burnt up, then disappeared. I’d like to know if this is probably one of a known group this time of year, or a loner.
Al on January 31st, 2010
Last night at 20:33 we saw a bright constant light (like low satellite) pass from a WNW to ESE position high in the sky over Pennant Hills. It was observed a good 7 to 8 seconds until cloud cover obstructed our view. I tried to look up the ISS trajectory this morning but could not find matching info. Would be nice to get some feedback.I understand Nick Lombe has recently retired…
Nick Lomb on January 31st, 2010
Hello Al. You are quite right it was the ISS which was predicted to be NE of Sydney at 20:32:35 AEDT last night 30 January 2010. For predictions see the Heavens Above website.
PS The rumours of my retirement are only partially true.
rosier on February 1st, 2010
On 31st January 2010 at around 11.50PM, I was facing North West from a 3rd story Randwick balcony looking towards the City Skyscrape when I heard a very loud engine noise. When I looked up I saw what appeard to be a large white space shuttle with many bright large red and blue lights shining from underneath the vessel. It wasn’t travelling very fast and I watched and heard it pass for at least 3-4 minutes. It was cloudy at first with the clouds covering the moon. As it went off into the distance, the clouds seem to disappear. I’m just wondering if anyone else has sighted this, I need confirmation that I’m not going mad.
Erica Crocker on February 1st, 2010
At 9.15pm me and my sister observed a bright orange ball going across the sky with no sound from east to west in parklea Sydney. We took 3 pictures……they are a bit blurry but the object was high up and large, about the size of an orange to the eye in the sky. It took about 3 minutes to go over. (can anyone tell us what this is?)
Al on February 1st, 2010
Great to hear that you are still on board, Nick! Thanks for your feedback! The sighting was impressive. Thank you also for the Heavens Above link. Al
Nick Lomb on February 2nd, 2010
Hello Erica. You and your sister were looking at the International Space Station as it passed about 1000 km away.
alpha zulu on February 9th, 2010
Hi There,
Last night, 08/02/2010 in Beaconsfield Vic, I was hanging washing on the line at approx 21:30 when I looked up and noticed a tiny star like ball moving from WNW to ESE. It was silent and traveled from horizon to horizon in about 5 sec. About 5 min later, I noticed a similar object traveling south at about the same speed. Excited by what I had just seen, I kept looking and low an behold, about 20 sec after the second object had disappeared behind my neighbors roof-line, I saw a third identical object travel from the same point that I had lost the second one heading North at about the same speed. I couldn’t see any more but I did see a shooting star. Could these have been satellites?