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Bizarre Expanding Light Halo Seen By Hawaii Webcam

Posted by timothy on from the only-part-of-the-sky-is-falling dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes "A webcam mounted at the CFHT observatory in Hawaii caught a strange, expanding halo of light on the night of June 22. Announced on the Starship Asterisk forum, readers quickly honed in on the likely culprit: the terminal charge from the third stage of a Minuteman III missile. Very similar to the Norway Spiral of 2009, and scientific sleuthing at its best!"

8 of 38 comments (clear)

  1. A good summary by bosah · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/06/29/awesomely-weird-expanding-halo-of-light-seen-from-hawaii/ Another link on said pretty thing that reads better than the forum.

    1. Re:A good summary by xerxesVII · · Score: 2

      But did it read better than that sentence?

      --
      "We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all." - Douglas Adams
  2. Re:Bizarre not so much by Psychotria · · Score: 3, Informative

    No I think that has been ruled out (the Waverider scramjet cruise missile), basically because the Waverider test took place on March 22, 2011 -- however the timestamps on the video are June 22, 2011 (a mistake of dates in Ichi Tanaka's email).

  3. ICBM by slshwtw · · Score: 2

    6/22/2011 - VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- A scheduled unarmed operational test Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launch occurred at 6:35 a.m. June 22 from Launch Facility-10 here

    A few of the apod.com forum users came up with the likely explanation that the effect is due to an ICBM launch from Vandenberg AFB. The timestamp of the video (accounting for time zone difference) and the Eastward direction of observation correlate with this explanation.

    1. Re:ICBM by PPH · · Score: 2

      Those wacky astronomers!

      Now people will devote their careers hypothesizing stuff like dark energy and new particles to account for the time discrepancy.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  4. No more hatch... by epte · · Score: 2

    Someone forgot to press the button.

  5. Did no one read the email? by commisaro · · Score: 2

    The email states the effect was witnessed MARCH 22, not July 22, which is when the missile launch was scheduled.

  6. Re:Stupid Question but... by digitalchinky · · Score: 2

    All the info you need is in the summary links - yes, two astronomers saw it with their own eyes. (and night vision equipment, and obviously the two cameras in two differing locations that you don't trust)