Donny Mott photographed the glowing debris from Spirit Lake, Idaho
Last night, February 23-24, 2015, observers across the western half of North America witnessed a cluster of bright lights slowly moving south to north across the night sky. Some mistook it for a meteor, but it was the re-entry and disintegration of a Chinese rocket body, specifically stage 3 of the CZ-4B rocket that launched the Yaogan Weixing 26 satellite in December 2014.
Coincidentally, a geomagnetic storm was in progress at the time and lucky photographers caught the rocket’s debris cutting across curtains of northern lights.
Captured by John Arnold, near Craig, Montana. He said, “It was moving so slow that I had time to wait for NR (40 sec total) and take another as it burned over the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Incredible luck. And the Aurora was great by Montana standards.”
Photographer Rocky Raybell, in Keller Washington, said, “I was taking pics of the aurora to the north when I noticed what appeared to be a band of light to my east heading in a northerly direction.”
Citizen satellite-tracking expert Ted Molczan told spaceweather.coms:
There are confirmed sightings from Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, British Columbia, Alberta. The most southerly observation I have noted so far was from Scottsdale, Arizona; the most northerly from Didsbury, Alberta. That spans nearly 3,000 km of the descent.
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Map shows sightings along with the ground track of the decaying rocket body. Credit: Ted Molczan
Bottom line: On the night of February 23-24, 2015, some lucky observers across the western half of North America saw a cluster of bright lights slowly moving south to north across the night sky. It was the re-entry and disintegration of a Chinese rocket body, specifically stage 3 of the CZ-4B rocket that launched the Yaogan Weixing 26 satellite in December 2014.
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1w97Gh6
Donny Mott photographed the glowing debris from Spirit Lake, Idaho
Last night, February 23-24, 2015, observers across the western half of North America witnessed a cluster of bright lights slowly moving south to north across the night sky. Some mistook it for a meteor, but it was the re-entry and disintegration of a Chinese rocket body, specifically stage 3 of the CZ-4B rocket that launched the Yaogan Weixing 26 satellite in December 2014.
Coincidentally, a geomagnetic storm was in progress at the time and lucky photographers caught the rocket’s debris cutting across curtains of northern lights.
Captured by John Arnold, near Craig, Montana. He said, “It was moving so slow that I had time to wait for NR (40 sec total) and take another as it burned over the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Incredible luck. And the Aurora was great by Montana standards.”
Photographer Rocky Raybell, in Keller Washington, said, “I was taking pics of the aurora to the north when I noticed what appeared to be a band of light to my east heading in a northerly direction.”
Citizen satellite-tracking expert Ted Molczan told spaceweather.coms:
There are confirmed sightings from Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, British Columbia, Alberta. The most southerly observation I have noted so far was from Scottsdale, Arizona; the most northerly from Didsbury, Alberta. That spans nearly 3,000 km of the descent.
Enjoying EarthSky? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!
Map shows sightings along with the ground track of the decaying rocket body. Credit: Ted Molczan
Bottom line: On the night of February 23-24, 2015, some lucky observers across the western half of North America saw a cluster of bright lights slowly moving south to north across the night sky. It was the re-entry and disintegration of a Chinese rocket body, specifically stage 3 of the CZ-4B rocket that launched the Yaogan Weixing 26 satellite in December 2014.
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1w97Gh6
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