I forgot to mention that the object passed directly in front of them, from one horizon to the other. The distance I don't recall, but it would have seemed to have been relatively close by, at least close enough to notice there was no sound from its passing.

The story was that he and his father, when he was about ten, were somewhere desolate (I think it might have been the Nullabor), a treeless landscape where you could see 360 degrees, like out at sea. He said that they saw at quite a distance a streamlined needle-shaped metallic object moving incredib...

OK, yes my first thought was a contrail plume being left behind for an atmosphere burn but of course in pitch-dark this would be invisible, unless the setting sun was able to illuminate it. This conversation about exhaust plumes reminds me of a conversation I had with a scientist-engineer when I was...

Pleased to describe, no problem. Now I know that India launches its space rockets over Australia, I will be watching for Chandra-3 you can be sure. One disturbing point I noticed about the ABC report was that the professor from Queensland explained that after watching the video footage he could tell...

Just for the record the Centaur venting fuel image given above is what it looked like but without the bright points. It was a uniform white haze. If you have seen the small magellanic cloud at night with the naked eye at a dark site, it was like that at about the same intensity (about half as bright...

Thanks guys - its confirmed. It was Indian rocket going to the moon.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-23/ ... y/11336446

My error. 20km to the North of us is not Nevertire - that is roughly 20km East North East, and that is where the solar farm is, so due North is just country properties between us and Nyngan.

Was just discussing this with my Father and he tells me there were reports on the radio this morning of people living on the Australian East Coast reporting strange lights in the sky last night. Seems to confirm it.

Thanks guys - amazing response. To be honest I came back tonight doubting what I saw. A low level cloud seemed the most likely as I agree that small clouds can form in clear skies and in pitch black conditions they are almost invisible, not like in a city where you can see clouds at night. BUT I agr...

I think I just saw a supernova (exploding star) in Bootes near the star Izar, 10 minutes ago, 7:45 pm Sydney time Australia, GMT+10. It only lasted about 1 minute. I watched it with the naked eye for about 30 seconds, then went in to get my binoculars and by the time I returned (another 30 seconds) ...

My last thought is this - that the driving force for colonisation of another earth I believe will be earth politics and war. A nation with the technology to leave earth behind and seek their destiny elsewhere, free of earth government, might well take the chance. Tyranny and liberty are the twin the...

Interesting points raised. I suppose I fall in the camp that "possibly", our star appears to be a very average one, and therefore maybe our planet and its biotope is not that special. If that is the case then it is possible that earth like biotopes (and many other kinds) exist on other pla...

I am surprised that you mention the unlikelihood of an earth-twin, though I am not saying you are wrong. The simple answer is we don't know. I was reading an Astronomy Now article a few years ago that stated that due to the billions of stars in our galaxy alone, and the unknown number of galaxies ou...

Yes you are correct of course. I dug out my old calculations and discovered the error. As luck would have it my first calculation was to Alpha Centauri which is 4.365 LY, and my second calculation was in error. It just so happens that to travel to Alpha Centauri, constant g to the half way point of ...

I believe the relation I saw was a traveller accelerating at g continously for one year, has travelled a distance of one light year. Two years, 2 light years. What you said about 1LY makes sense. Maybe it was because my calculations were in light years, that is after one year you get to 1LY speed. I...