Why were you puzzled to see smoke? Bright meteors (fireballs) leave smoke trails.
Except in midwinter the sun rises in the south and sets in the south. OK, it rises a few points east of south and sets a few points west of south and there is an arc. But it definitely isn’t “east” or “west” since it’s south of the SE or SW point.
Same thing in midsummer, the sun rises in the north and sets in the north. But this time it makes a circuit around the whole sky from north to east to south to west and back to north as it sets. It bumps under the horizon, and you get a bit of dusk, and then peeks back up again.
Yes, I know. I’ve been just above and below the Arctic Circle at Midsummer. It’s an awesome sight to behold.
Only in the technical sense where “east” means “east of south”.
I can only imagine watching the sun loop around in the sky. I’d expect it to be very disorienting. I’m used to using the sun’s position in the sky to orient myself. It was bad enough in NZ and Aus, where the difference is really pretty slight in comparison.
I guess I’ve never seen such clear, obvious smoke trails before. Like I said, it looked to me like they were 500’-1000’ feet off the ground. Like I could actually see the wisps and stuff. When I’ve seen shooting stars before, they always seemed impossibly high up, and I’ve never noticed smoke (unless you’re counting the bright white streak itself.)
The ring and any “debris” that might form around an exploding star would not be visible to any earthbound view for months or more likely for years. The distance that it would have to travel from the point of explosion in order to be seen as separate from the point of origin would take at least that long to occur. Additionally, the explosion of a star and any associated color changes take a relatively longer time to happen, not seconds, as implied by the OP. I suspect, as do a few others, that this person had a relatively unique perspective on an incoming meteor, in that it was heading directly toward him. As such, it would have seemed to be exploding, changing colors and shedding pieces as if it were in one unmoving spot in the sky, when, in reality, it was heading directly toward the viewer. A cool phenomenon, to be sure, but not a supernova.
Great though when you get to see something like that.
I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye during daylight, a wisp of smoke almost vertically downwards just ending in mid flight. Pretty sure the angle, lack of whistle or bang and time of year precluded it being a firework
He saw “all the bits of debery [debris?] that came off” an “atomic ring”?
Come on. I’d believe he saw a UFO explode before I believed he saw a star explode the way he describes. Moreover, such an event wouldn’t happen instantly the way it would in a movie… boom… with a nice ring around it.
Maybe he ate the wrong type of mushroom.
Retina detaching?
During the time while Hale–Bopp was seen at sunset around April 1997. I saw a star appear directly overhead, grow brighter, shudder, collapse suddenly, then get twice as bright and fade away, as if it exploded in a Nova. This was all in about 1-2 minutes of time. Since it was stationary it probably wasn’t a satellite, since the geostationary ones would be way south of where I am.
When Phil Plait was doing a talk in Second Life about Gamma Ray Bursts at a Space Sim. I got a chance to ask him if GRB’s might be within the visible spectrum. He said Yes. I didn’t chat much about what I saw. But I figure it was probably a GRB rather than a Nova, since they last many times longer.
If you stare out to space long enough you could see some strange goings on.
What you saw was most likely a meteor coming straight at you.
Jamicat, while a GRB can in principle be visible to the naked eye, such are very rare, and usually on the dim end of visibility. Something like you describe, bright enough to be noticed even when you’re watching something else halfway across the sky, would surely have been noticed by many other people around the world and a wide variety of scientific instruments. Further, while 1-2 minutes is far too short for a conventional supernova, it’s also far too long for a GRB, which last more on the order of seconds.
Thanks you are right their was a distinct atomic signiture left. If you hold your arms apart as far as you can ,hold them up to the night sky using stars as a distance reference that was the size of the mushroom cloud left in the galaxy.the amens power of the bang made me yellp abit and sheilding my eyes it turn the yellow clifs of orewa white and to bright to lok at.im sure if i can find the aproxx co-ordernits their will be hevey traces of 'cosmic radiation. I am not worred about the haters who have their veiws.a scientist once quoted all that can be invented has been invented.you dont make quotes unless you known or have seen.one more for the haters man the electrical chagre made me hairs stand on end. It wasint moving it wasint in our atmosphere it wasint a meteor.
Just to clarify - in this section of the SDMB, we try to understand and figure out, or find folks who know. If we disagree, you needn’t take it personally. We are not haters. We simply do not think that you are correct in your assessment of what occurred. The posts have told you that such an event, if it had occurred very far from the earth, as you claim, would have been noticed by at least one of the thousands of people who spend their lives looking at the heavens, for fun and as a profession, and it was not. There is no record of such an event. Some suggestions were provided to plausibly explain your reported observations. You have rejected those. Maybe this is not the appropriate forum, then, for you to explore your ideas.
IIRC there’s a nebula that would be close to that size if visible in the night sky. As an aside, can anyone remind me what it is? Google doesn’t want to help me tonight.
This is starting to sound a lot less like an astronomical event and a lot more like a trip on hallucinogens.
And, really, don’t we all see a star explode every day?
Given that it had an expanding shockwave ring, it might have either been the moon Praxis or a space station large enough to be mistaken for a small moon. But I don’t believe such a ring effect has been seen since the mid 90s.
Yes on such a sensitive subject i approached a young hot head whith a BIG EYE at the local museum.He spat the same repetitive jargin as evey non beliver.So i thought i would after 6.8 years i better mention it to the grate minds out theing.I still to this day have not heard anything. I still to this day smile.Mate im only a star watcher.Im still apprehensive about this but people like you make it easyer to talk about.