Got a call from a friend just a few minutes ago and he started out with a “wierd science” question. He told me to go out and look at the moon and then look just a bit to the north west of it and tell him what was I seeing.
I saw it, and was pretty dumbfounded. It was about as bright as the moon, but about a quarter of the size and not possibly a star. I told him I’d call him back after I ran into the house to grab my big lens to try and see what it was.
There it is, our own bright light in the sky, long after sunset, but still as bright as the moon.
At first I thought I could see a gondola below it. I called it a gas balloon, but it turns out on magnification, it is an ordinary weather balloon. Its not as bright as the moon in this image because I wanted to see the detail.
Closer
And closer yet, you can faintly see a red tether below the balloon.
Thanks Rodger, that was cool. It’s a great item to add to my sky collection here in Albuquerque.
Edit – KOB posted a story about this that states the balloon is part of a NASA project called WASP and that it started out in Fort Sumner and slowly drifted west at high altitude. They have a nice image of the balloon here. Since I caught it just before the sun set at that high altitude I couldn’t see the translucent nature of the balloon.
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