>>The object was already incandescant when it caught Then this would explain a short path for a satellite. The one last thing
that bothers me is the portion you did see along the horizon and it's velocity.
In that location, it seems to be going too fast for a satellite. Here's what I
mean. I just happened to notice yesterday, a high up and distant airliner
producing contrails close to 20 degrees above the horizon and
traveling pretty much parallel to the horizon. It was crawling along. I marked
off about 20 degrees with my fists and counted 40 seconds and it still not quite
reached the 20 degree mark. Still in this case, we are essentially comparing
apples with oranges. So I tried another thought process and considered what we
definitely know...that is, 1) the object traveled about 20 degrees. 2) It was
traveling about 20 degrees above and parallel to the horizon. 3) The time it
took to traverse this 20 degrees was 20 seconds. These numbers should make it
easy to get in the ballpark where I can say to myself, " What is most likely...a
meteor or satellite?" At that location, we end up with a velocity of about 1
degree per second...seemingly in the realm of a satellite...if it occurred
in the zenith. We know the object was traveling very far off and the
distance traveled would appear much shorter than if it had occurred in the
zenith. It would be like standing between two railroad tracks and following it
with your eyes to the horizon. Near the horizon the tracks will appear to have
almost converged. Now if I looked at the converging tracks near the horizon and
a glowing rock was somehow fired from one track to the other, the distance
covered will appear very short. Whereas if this same rock was fired from
one track to the other at my feet, it will appear many times longer...I estimate
at least 3 to 6 times longer. So lets say if the glowing rock between the two
tracks near the horizon took 20 seconds to traverse the distance, it will
also take 20 seconds for the same rock to pass between the two tracks at my
feet. The time for it appeared lit up, will essentially be the same at both
locations. So using my estimate of the path length at my feet to be 3 to 6
times than that near the horizon, I come up with an estimated distance
traveled of about 60 to 120 degrees...or 3 to 6 degrees per second. I believe
more in the realm of a meteor. Some of the initial estimates may be off and thus
throw any accuracy towards either a satellite or a meteor. But my
hunch still wants to lean towards your object being more likely that of a meteor
than a satellite. But I guess we will never know.
George Zay
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