Windsurfing Regatta?
Posted on 09/19/2009 7:36:05 PM PDT by the invisib1e hand
OK, so we're sitting out by the East River, just taking in the beautiful evening atmosphere, looking east, and we see what appears to be a police-chopper type spotlight a bit to the south and east. But it was really big, aiming down, and the cone of light appeared to grow, reaching downward and outward [I was saying to my friend (the actress) "the aliens are coming to get us." I was, of course, kidding].
It looked like the source of the light was obscured behing a cloud, only there were no clouds. It almost looked like a rocket taking off...then it was just a bright dot, and then it was gone without a trace, and there was no craft of any kind around that could have been the source.
Space shuttle? Space debris? Simultaneous hallucinations? Mass delusions?
Windsurfing Regatta?
I’m tempted to say that it’s just Jupiter, but I’m not sure that you can see anything dimmer than magnitude -3 or so in NYC...
In this day and age, if you don’t have it on video, you have no credibility. Just about everyone has a cellphone, and most can make videos (or at least take photos).
the space shuttle did release a large amount of waste water that looked quite similar and it heated in the atmosphere
There was a rocket launch tonight from Wallops Island, VA. A sounding rocket, I think. Buddy of mine works for NASA up there.
The mods did zot a troll tonight.
If it resembles a really bright white ‘star’, it’s the planet Jupiter. Jupiter is exactly in that part of the sky about this time of the night.
I do amateur astronomy from Manhattan, btw. Jupiter has been amazingly bright for a few months now. It, like Venus, when it is out at night or in the early morning, is often mistaken for an approaching plane’s headlights or a hovering helicopter.
The ‘ray’ of light you saw coming from it was probably something caused by your own eyes, like when you squint at a bright light and a long thin column of light appears.
That would explain the other brightish, stationery light a bit north of the one described, from our perspective, and much further east.
But this other thing was closer to the river, and south (again, from our perspective) of what I think was Jupiter.
And I'm telling you, the spotlight effect was huge.
Then it was probably some sort of aircraft, possibly a police helicopter with a spotlight.
It may have been from a spotlight on the ground somewhere.
My brother said he saw the same thing in the eastern sky (we are out near Clinton, NJ). He had just walked out of the garage and I was in the process of turning the lights off and closing up the doors and he said something, which I couldn’t hear. When I asked what he said, he was silent... so I didn’t see anything. He said it looked like a rocket or something. I forget what time this was... it was late twilight.
When I did look that way, it appeared that there was a faint clound in the area he was pointing at... that’s about all I saw.
I would like an update on this with a link.
Interesting. If I hear about any other reports of this, I'll post back here and/or ping you both.
Though man-made light, at night is very bright
There’s no whitewash victim
As the neons dim to the coat of white
Real Imperial Aerosol Kid
Wipes his gun, he’s forgetton what he did
And the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
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