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Re: (meteorobs) Strange orange light spotted over Adelaide.(13th April, 2002)

Your description of the behavior of this object sounds very much like a weather
balloon.  However here in the US they are white not orange and further
meteorologists depend less on weather balloons today than they did in the past
though I occasionally see one.  Australia seems to be the popular place for even
Americans to launch balloons carrying scientific instruments.  Let us know what
you find out.

Clear skies and have a good day. Robert G.

Andrew Wall wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Last night (April 13, 2002) at around 7pm Local time, I was outside doing my
> usual naked eye observations from my home in Paralowie, 20km North of
> Adelaide, South Australia, when I noticed an orange light in the south. I
> kept watching it as it headed towards the NW. I called out to my wife to see
> this object and we both watched it for about 5-10 minutes. It flickered
> quite a bit, but it wasn't a constant flicker as you would see with an
> aircrafts lights so I decided it wasn't an aircraft. There was also NO
> sound, usually you can hear the rumble of a jet engine or the noisy sound of
> a propeller but with this there was NOTHING. The erratic flickering
> continued and the objects brightness would have been around -3 magnitude
> occasionally bursting higher to around -5 magnitude. It also dimmed to
> around +1 to +2 magnitude. It's speed was constant and it maximum height
> would have been around 15-20 degrees. It was visible all the way from the
> south until I lost sight of it about 5 degrees above the horizon due to
> trees in the area. I got out the video camera during the event but it
> doesn't show up much, I also got out the binoculars but due to the
> brightness of the object I couldn't tell what it was. I did however see a
> slight siloet of something above the object just before it dissapeared below
> the tree line, but I did not have enough time to see what shape it was. Not
> sure who to contact I decided I would post to this group to see if anyone
> else has seen or heard of any strange lights last night. I also was the same
> or a similar object at 10:47pm local time travelling in the same direction
> but lower in the sky, around 10-15 degrees. It had the same erratic dimming
> and brightening as the last one but not as bright.
>
> Any help on this mysterious object would be appreciated.
>
> regards
> Andrew Wall
> Paralowie. South Australia.
>
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