http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7022998
Posted on 09/19/2009 7:36:05 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand
Not me, though, since I guess my brother was standing there staring at it, drooling, and didn't YELL... "COME HERE, look at this, NOW!!!"... figures.
He did that to me when the stupid guy in the gyrocopter flew over the farm this afternoon... the guy that ALWAYS flies over when the weather is nice... but a UFO or rocket launch or whatever... silence. JERK.
An explanation from NASA, from the link you provided...
Night Time Artificial Cloud Study Using NASA Sounding Rocket
A rocket experiment that may shed light on the highest clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere was conducted from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on September 19, 2009. The experiment was launched on a NASA Black Brant XII Sounding Rocket.
Black Brant Sounding Rocket The Charged Aerosol Release Experiment (CARE) was conducted by the Naval Research Laboratory and the Department of Defense Space Test Program using a NASA four-stage Black Brant XII suborbital sounding rocket. Using ground based instruments and the STP/NRL STPSat-1 spacecraft, scientists will study an artificial noctilucent cloud formed by the exhaust particles of the rocket’s fourth stage at about 173 miles altitude.
Ground based cameras and radars were based at various observation stations along the Atlantic coast and in Bermuda. Because of the optical observations, the launch required clear skies not only at Wallops but also at the multiple observation stations.
The Spatial Heterodyne IMager for MEsospheric Radicals instrument on the STPSat-1 spacecraft will track the CARE dust cloud for days or even months. The SHIMMER instrument has previously viewed natural noctilucent clouds for the past two years. The CARE is the first space viewing of an artificial noctilucent cloud.
Data collected during the experiment will provide insight into the formation, evolution, and properties of noctilucent clouds, which are typically observed naturally at high latitudes. In addition to the understanding of noctilucent clouds, scientists will use the experiment to validate and develop simulation models that predict the distribution of dust particles from rocket motors in the upper atmosphere.
Natural noctilucent clouds, also known as polar mesospheric clouds, are found in the upper atmosphere as spectacular displays that are most easily seen just after sunset. The clouds are the highest clouds in Earth’s atmosphere, located in the mesosphere around 50 miles altitude.
They are normally too faint to be seen with the naked eye and are visible only when illuminated by sunlight from below the horizon while the Earth’s surface is in darkness.
A team from government agencies and universities, led by the Naval Research Laboratory, is conducting the experiment. In addition to the Naval Research Laboratory, participants include the DoD STP, NASA, University of Michigan, Air Force Research Laboratory, Clemson University, Stanford University, University of Colorado, Penn State University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Haystack Observatory.
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/wallops/CARE.html
From one of the reports, the sighting of the apparent rocket launch occurred at around 7:45PM EDT.
And to think I was out tonight in Manhattan observing a 7:31 to 7:32 PM pass of the International Space Station! However, the ISS pass was low in the northern part of the sky and after it was over we were too busy discussing it to look up at the sky again.
Did you see a light in the sky?
Sunday, September 20, 2009 | 1:15 AM EDT
September 19, 2009 (WPVI) — Action News has been contacted by many of you about a light in the sky. Did you see it?
Sunday morning update:
Here is the information from the Associated Press:
NASA says it successfully launched a rocket in Virginia as part of an experiment, and the blast may have caused dozens of people to report seeing strange lights in the sky.
Story continues below
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The space agency said it launched the Black Brant XII on Saturday evening to gather data on the highest clouds in the Earth’s atmosphere. About the time of the launch, dozens of people in the Northeast started calling local television stations to report seeing strange lights.
The calls came from as far away as Boston, which is about 380 miles northeast of the launch site.
The rocket is designed to create an artificial cloud. NASA hopes the experiment will provide information on the formation and properties of noctilucent clouds, which occur at high altitudes.
Several Action News viewers called our station all reporting the same thing.
They saw a strange, bright, cone-shaped light in the sky at about 7:55 p.m.
According to viewers, the light lasted only about 10 seconds.
An explanation has been discovered.
NASA launched a weather research rocket from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, at about 7:46 tonight.
It is a four-stage rocket and the light seen up and down the East Coast is probably related to the burning of fuel during one of those stages about ten minutes after launch.
A user on flickr seems to have taken a picture of the light, as seen above. Is that what you saw?
http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=7022998
From CNN...
September 19th, 2009
Mysterious lights at dusk prompt calls
Posted: 11:11 PM ET
(CNN) - A series of spooky lights in the clouds off the coast of the northeastern United States Saturday night sparked a flurry of phone calls to authorities and television news stations, with some startled residents worried that extra-terrestrials were landing.
CNN affiliate stations from New Jersey to Massachusetts heard from dozens of callers who reported that the lights appeared as a cone shape shining down from the sky.
But the source of the illumination turned out to be a little more down to earth — well, closer to Earth, to be exact.
The lights were the result of an experimental rocket launch by NASA from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, a NASA spokesman told CNN.
Keith Koehler said the Black Brant XII Sounding Rocket was launched to study the Earth’s highest clouds. The light came from an artificial noctilucent cloud formed by the exhaust particles of the rocket’s fourth stage about 173 miles high.
Natural noctilucent clouds — also called “polar mesospheric clouds” — are “found in the upper atmosphere as spectacular displays that are most easily seen just after sunset,” according to a NASA statement published earlier this month. “The clouds are the highest clouds in Earth’s atmosphere, located in the mesosphere around 50 miles altitude.”
Normally, noctilucent clouds are not visible to the naked eye and can only be seen when illuminated by sunlight below the horizon. The Saturday launch took place at 7:46 p.m., just as the sun was setting for the day.
Observation stations on the ground and in satellites will track the artificial noctilucent clouds created by the rocket for months, NASA said.
“Data collected during the experiment will provide insight into the formation, evolution, and properties of noctilucent clouds, which are typically observed naturally at high latitudes.
“In addition to the understanding of noctilucent clouds, scientists will use the experiment to validate and develop simulation models that predict the distribution of dust particles from rocket motors in the upper atmosphere,” the NASA statement said.
–CNN’s Greg Morrison contributed to this report.
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/19/mysterious-lights-at-dusk-prompt-calls/
No,man, there was no hotel there.
But that light in the sky looks similar ;)
Glad you solved the mystery. Thanks, I can sleep now, and not fear nightmares about little green men in black helicopters.
what do you suppose he was smoking when he wrote that?
early winners.
Sale at Big Lots?
You can see much dimmer than -3 from Manhattan from almost anywhere.
early winners.
Yep. I apologize for glossing over their responses. Since I didn't see any links with them, I didn't really read what they wrote.
It was a joke (sort of)... When I lived in Manhattan, all that I could see from my window was the building across the street...
It was really quite a site, wasn't it -- the way you describe the light appearing as though through a haze -- and as I recall the light almost seemed to pulsate through that "haze."
Very cool.
Anwyway, the aliens never did come and get us.
I was participating with friends in a Nightsky Photography workshop at Acadia National Park. There were 15 adults: 12 participants, 2 park service employees to drive van and assist, plus Tyler Nordgren,PhD astronomer and artist, teaching the workshop. After an introduction and instructions, we all set up our cameras on the edge of Eagle Lake, most of us aiming southwest hoping to capture the Milky Way as the evening progressed. (The workshop was scheduled from 6:30-9:00pm ET.)
At approximately 7:50pm ET, we all observed a bright object that appeared suddenly directly in front of us. It seemed to come down in the sky, burn brightly creating a cone of light shining towards the ground much like a streetlight and fog-like light around it. the "streetlight" did not make it the ground. After a few seconds, the object disappeared. The fog and "streetlight" slowly disappeared after about 45 seconds. It just seemed to fade from the cone shape to a smudge in the sky.
At least 3 participants' cameras captured the event. (A series of 3 photos are attached, hopefully.) Not knowing where else to share such an event, we are posting it here. A description of photography workshop can be found here:http://www.nightskyfestival.org/Festival/Home_.html
*Note* Author's first image was not attached to post, or is unavailable.
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An eerie cloud that glowed briefly in the night sky Saturday was no UFO. It was created by humans - more specifically a NASA rocket built to make clouds that shine at night.
The rocket launched as part of an experiment to artificially create so-called noctilucent - or night-shining - clouds, the highest clouds on Earth. They naturally appear around 50 miles (80 km) above Earth’s high latitudes and are also known as polar mesospheric clouds.
Saturday night’s rocket experiment lifted off at 7:46 p.m. EDT (2346 GMT) from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. It created a brief light show that was visible across the United States’ East Coast and sparked calls from curious skywatchers as far away as Boston, according to the Associated Press.
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/090920-nasa-noctilucent-cloud-rocket.html
i can’t believe this thread got as far as it did without the ufo stuff starting.
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