What just happened in sky over Los Angeles?

finny

[Finny]

About ten minutes ago, Husband in hills behind Brea, between Brea and Chino Hills, spotted in the northwest what looked like something entering the atmosphere. We grabbed binoculars, and it was extremely high altitude, coming in, not going out. Anybody see it? Can probably still spot it further north, as in Pasadena, etc. Grab binocs and look.

[null and void]

Probably just as well...

[Finny]

By the way ... is your screen name derived from the only word ever uttered on film by Prissy the Lovesick Hen? (Isn't that her name, the hen that's always trying to land Foghorn Leghorn?)

[Dashing Dasher]

[Kirkwood]

Shuttle reentry

[Kirkwood]

Shuttle reentry seen from the ground with vapor trail.

[ljswisc]

Don't you have a digital camera?

[InterceptPoint]

I think they saw Aurora coming in from a recon run.

I think you're right.

[RavenATB]

Ooops! I'm sorry. I had fajitas for lunch today. It gives me the "wind" something awful.

[ljswisc]

Remember. When the aliens land, they'll eat the fat ones first...

I'm a gonner!

[Finny]

Yes, we have a digital camera with a telephoto lens, yet, that was in easy reach at the time!! But husband was chatting with daugher (who called to wish him Happy Father's Day) and didn't take pic, wishes he had. I told him even with the telephoto, it wouldn't have shown the detail, but what do I know. It would have at least shown something! Anyway ... wish me luck, this is the first time I've ever posted a pic to FR. This is a rendering husband did of how the object appeared through the binoculars. To the naked eye, I could not discern the forked tails, but husband says he could barely see them. When he first spotted it, however, it was so high that it seemed stationary, and at first he thought it was a blimp hanging over the vicinity of Diamond Bar, but as it gradually became larger, he could tell that it wasn't a blimp. Then he got me to look, and I grabbed the binocs, while he was happily chatting with lovely daughter. Okay, here goes:

[Finny]

Oops. Did something wrong. Will try again.

[InterceptPoint]

[Kirkwood]

A better impression of a shuttle reentry with a short frame speed.

[Finny]

DID IT!

[Finny]

Cool pic! No, it didn't look like that. It looked like the pic I posted in #374, except that's only how it looked through binocs. To the naked eye, it was but a wisp. As I said, I coudn't discern a forking with the naked eye, only through binocs.

[Kirkwood]

And seen here withou the zoom-in. This more like a naked-eye view. It resembles a typical bolide with the bright speckle for the shuttle and the more obvious vapor trail behind. There is no detail to be seen at this scale... no bow shock or outline of a craft.

[Finny]

Is there really such thing as the Aurora? Maybe that's what it was.

[B4Ranch]

Very interesting indeed! Thank you for the update and picture.

[Kirkwood]

Well your picture helps a lot. I assume the pointy end was in the direction of travel and the two arms were trailing?

[Finny]

Neat pics, Kirkwood. One of the nice things about living in Orlando was hearing the shuttles come in -- the big double sonic boom, usually in the very early hours of the morning. They'd wake me up briefly, I'd send up a little "Welcome home! Glad you're safely back!" and go back to sleep. When we watched a shuttle launch once, there were ZILLIONS of spectators, everywhere they could squeeze themselves -- parked on the sides of roads, standing on rooftops, in parking lots, everywhere. When the shuttle went off, there wasn't a dry eye anywhere. Then we all cheered, which must have been quite a sound from thousands of people in a huge radius, except you could hardly hear it for the noise from the launch. It was wonderful. Husband saw a night launch once, too, said it was spectacular.