Amateur astronomers I have spoken to have all told me that despite staying up all night in remote locations numerous times, they have no incidents of seeing things for which there weren't an explanation.
I've attended a handful of all night "star parties" myself, and can only report one incident of which there was any question. It was a moonless night (during which most star parties are held) near the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. We were of course seeing meteors all night. There was one however, for which the consensus was that it also was a meteor, where the object was near the southern horizon and moved slower than one was used to seeing meteors moving. It was faster however than one would expect a plane to move at the apparent distance. It did not blink and it wasn't a streak like most meteors but a point of light that lasted about five seconds. I wanted to ask is what we saw consistent with perhaps a meteor bouncing off the upper atmosphere seen from a distance?
Thanks
I've attended a handful of all night "star parties" myself, and can only report one incident of which there was any question. It was a moonless night (during which most star parties are held) near the peak of the Perseid meteor shower. We were of course seeing meteors all night. There was one however, for which the consensus was that it also was a meteor, where the object was near the southern horizon and moved slower than one was used to seeing meteors moving. It was faster however than one would expect a plane to move at the apparent distance. It did not blink and it wasn't a streak like most meteors but a point of light that lasted about five seconds. I wanted to ask is what we saw consistent with perhaps a meteor bouncing off the upper atmosphere seen from a distance?
Thanks