- #1
Siberion
- 33
- 1
Hello, PF community.
Past wednesday I was visiting the National Astronomical Observatory, which is located pretty close to my home, in Chile. It was about 10 pm, and I was waiting for my turn to see through the main telescope, while some astronomers were teaching us about the common stars in the nightsky.
I was looking at certain place in the sky, near Sirius, when all of sudden I saw a tiny dot in the sky, which disappeared in less than a second. It was a really short flash, which brightness and apparent size was comparable to a star. It didn't describe a curve or a straight line, it simply flashed and disappeared. Then, after 3 seconds, I saw another one, exactly equal to the last one, but it appeared a bit more to the west than the previous one.
I kept waiting for more, but that was all. As the astronomers were busy talking to other people, I forgot to ask them about it. this may be a very common event but I'm not really sure of what could it be. So the question is:
Do shooting stars always describe a curve when seen on the sky?. The flashes I saw were not exactly located on top of me, so if it was in fact a shooting star, wdouln't it have described a movement different than a single point?.
I'm sorry if this seems too obvious.
Thanks!
Past wednesday I was visiting the National Astronomical Observatory, which is located pretty close to my home, in Chile. It was about 10 pm, and I was waiting for my turn to see through the main telescope, while some astronomers were teaching us about the common stars in the nightsky.
I was looking at certain place in the sky, near Sirius, when all of sudden I saw a tiny dot in the sky, which disappeared in less than a second. It was a really short flash, which brightness and apparent size was comparable to a star. It didn't describe a curve or a straight line, it simply flashed and disappeared. Then, after 3 seconds, I saw another one, exactly equal to the last one, but it appeared a bit more to the west than the previous one.
I kept waiting for more, but that was all. As the astronomers were busy talking to other people, I forgot to ask them about it. this may be a very common event but I'm not really sure of what could it be. So the question is:
Do shooting stars always describe a curve when seen on the sky?. The flashes I saw were not exactly located on top of me, so if it was in fact a shooting star, wdouln't it have described a movement different than a single point?.
I'm sorry if this seems too obvious.
Thanks!