“Kyk daar! Kyk die maan.“
“It’s not the moon. It’s moving too fast.”
It was Sunday night 18 October 2009 at Tussen Die Riviere Game Park near Bethulie. The wind was fresh but the air was clear and the sky crammed with stars. The time was 20.50. Appearing over the horizon just below the Southern Cross an extraordinary object moved swiftly northwards, filling our view of the sky.
We all, hard-nosed skeptics or not, were stunned with amazement. Even the Smiffie photographer reacted just not quickly enough to catch a good image. It resembled a small, bright star that expanded until it appeared to split open into 2 objects, all the while pulsating rings of light outwards like a stone dropped into a lake. Then the “star” quickly shrank again into a single core before repeating the process. As it moved towards the opposite horizon, the star and its rings gradually faded.
During the few short minutes the episode occurred it excited many confusing thoughts and emotions. Was it a UFO, or more rationally, simply a satellite?
On Saturday 24 October, during their 8.30pm astronomy programme, Radio Sonder Grense broadcast a report from Boyden Observatory and advised that further information was available on the website www.spaceweather.com. Surfing produced a blog http://transientsky.wordpress.com which gave this explanation: “… it was a fuel dump from a recent satellite launch.
At 16:12 GMT an Atlas V rocket was launched from Vandenberg AF base in California carrying the DMSP F18 weather satellite. Specifically it was a fuel dump from the Centaur upper stage used to place the satellite in its proper orbit. Excess fuel is “dumped” or vented into space in order to prevent any future explosions that will litter space.” (One wonders how explosions can “litter” space? Moreover, surely fuel dumped in space would create a highly flammable environment?)
It also appears that the image seen over Europe was not exactly the same as that seen in the skies of southern Africa.
Check images at: http://www.astronomical.co.za/gallery.htm.
Filed under: News
ufos is real!