What the heck did I see?

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sng926

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Hi. I've never posted here before, but have a question. Tonight as I was walking outside on a perfectly clear night, I looked up and saw something really strange in the sky. It was a huge mass of something that looked to be in many different pieces. It glowed like the color of stars and was moving fairly fast, but nowhere near as fast as a meteor. It appeared to be broken up into many tiny pieces, but they were all moving across the sky in a cluster. There were probably hundreds of pieces. I watched it for as long as it was in my field of vision, which was maybe about 30 seconds. As it got farther away, it looked like pieces were falling off and burning up. Any ideas of what this was? I've never seen anything like it before. Is it just a huge piece of space junk burning up, or what? Thanks!
 
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igorsboss

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The described speed indicates to me that re-entering space-junk is the most likely explanation.<br />
 
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sng926

Guest
Relative to the end of my thumb, if i was holding my arm out, I'd say the mass was about the size of the palm of my hand. <br /><br />It was traveling south and did not appear to be getting any closer to the ground. Also, it was dimmer than some stars. <br /><br />I live in Westchester County, NY, which is just north of NYC. <br /><br />There were no noises that I noticed. I think it was way too high up to hear anything. <br /><br />I did not see any vapor trails.
 
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sng926

Guest
Thanks for trying to answer. This really is the strangest thing I've ever seen in the sky. I'm not someone who is totally clueless on astronomy either. I am really interested in it, I just don't have the time to pursue it too often. I know in what I've studied of it in the past, this doesn't match the description of anything I've ever heard of.
 
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kmarinas86

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I hope there is a time when people with photographic memory can begin to upload their video into a computer. That would be a day when these "visions" can be recorded so that others can see what these people have seen for themselves.
 
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sng926

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It was most definitely too high to be a hot air balloon. This appeared to be broken into many small pieces that varied somewhat in size. The size of most of the pieces was relative to that of a star. But like I said, there were hundreds (maybe thousands?) of these pieces. I promise I'm not crazy!
 
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neutron_star6

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Hey SNG I saw something curious myself except it wasnt last night, it was about a week or so ago and it was just really amazing. The tail was like this bright turquoise blue color and was moving fairly slow but it was in a cluster. Im curious about what i saw and what you too have also seen. But also like yours it burned up and just faded into the sky.
 
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yurkin

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How long after sunset was this?<br /><br />When you said thousands the only thing i could think of was a high altitude cloud. It sparkled like that from the sunlight hitting the bits of volcanic ash that those clouds are made of.
 
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sng926

Guest
yurkin,<br /><br />I saw this at around 11:15 pm, so this was way after sunset, and it was a completely clear sky. No clouds.
 
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neutron_star6

Guest
What I believe I saw was a cluster of meteors or something similar to. Plus to add to it there was a meteor shower that night when I saw mine. It was about 9:30 or 10:30
 
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raven2490

Guest
Hey SNG ...<br /><br />I live in westchester as well (New Rochelle to be exact) .. that Night you are talking about .. there were alot of weird clouds in the sky that night just very light patches that looked very bright to be a cloud but they seem to be clouds and yes the rest of the sky was very clear and the weather was perfect to be outside with ur scope .. but I'm gonna have to say they were clouds because I was pretty puzzled myself <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />
 
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yurkin

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hi raven<br />It sounds like your describing Noctilucent Clouds, they mostly occur during summer at higher latitudes.<br /><br />SNG are you certain on the time? 11:15 is far too late. Even if sunlight reflected off the top of a cloud and then on to what you saw, or something unlikely like that. <br /><br />But from the way you are describing it sounds self-illuminating. I’ve never heard of a cloud that sparkles in the way you describe. But if I had to guess it was some sort of cloud.<br />
 
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sng926

Guest
I am positive on the time. Whatever I saw was so strange to me that I made sure to look at the clock and take note of the time. This appeared to be at a very high altitude and if it was a cloud (which I am pretty sure it was not) it was moving faster than any cloud I've ever seen before.
 
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oscarb44

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/* crude language deleted */ Meteor shower also comes to mind. Remember this is the time of year for the annual Pliedes meteor show.
 
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CalliArcale

Guest
<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>That is not a true statement There are many military launcehes (less that non military) however only a few military satellites go into a polar orbit. The polar orbit is used mainly for recon and weather satellites.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />Just as a sidenote to what SG said, polar orbits are more common in Russia than in the US, simply because their geography favors them. American rockets have to work a lot harder to reach a polar orbit, so the US military generally won't launch into a polar orbit unless there's a particular reason for it. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>
 
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vogon13

Guest
Saw a video of rocket stage burning up over a night time football game. Your description seems pretty accurate for that. I also think there was a video of a shuttle external tank burning up that was shot from Hawaii. Probably both of these clips are on the internet somewhere for you to watch and decide if it's plausibly what you saw. <br /><br /><br /><br />and I'm glowing in the dark to give you warning<br />Bee Gees <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>
 
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newtonian

Guest
raven and Yurkin- Well, noctilucent clouds are on the increase. However, the description sounds more like meteorites or space debris. <br /><br />Noctilucent clouds do not move fast from our reference point.of view.<br /><br />Aurora can take some strange appearances, but I doubt this is one of them. <br /><br />Aurora's can look like clouds sometimes, but if you look close you will see the pulsating and/or shimmering characteristic of the northern lights.<br /><br />BTW- we may see Aurora tonight from the current solar storm. <br /><br />
 
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