Unfortunately, the sudden outburst of the Holmes comet on Oct 23, 2007, which led to it's visibility to the naked eye, is totally missed by me. Firstly, missed it when it first became visible. In 3 days, Kolkata was abuzz with an UFO news and everybody is looking at the sky. When that was clear, the sky was not. For 3 days, it was cloudy. I heard that status would be visible even after a week to the naked eye, but the search was futile.
Don't know, if it will be visible again in such status in our lifetime. Hope won't miss such opportunity in future.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Yes, it was Venus
The UFO mystery is clear now. It indeed was Venus, certified by the Astronomists. But what was the bizarre movement and random color change? Got an explanation for that too. The most plausible explanation was by Dr. Amalendu Bandopadhyay, ex-Director of Positional Astronomy Center, Kolkata. He says "Sometimes there is a Clear Air Turbulance (cyclone at 35-40,000 feet above sea level at 150+ miles per hour), which cannot be seen, as the name suggests, but disturbs the light that reaches the Earth from space. This is what must have happened on Monday early morning."
So, the UFO mystery ends here. But there's another guest in our sky - the Holmes comet. I might have seen it tonight, but weather is cloudy here since yesterday including some heavy rains. Waiting for the sky to clear...
So, the UFO mystery ends here. But there's another guest in our sky - the Holmes comet. I might have seen it tonight, but weather is cloudy here since yesterday including some heavy rains. Waiting for the sky to clear...
UFO on Kolkata sky?
Kolkata has been abuzz for last two days for a reported sighting of a bright fireball at approximately 30 degrees above the horizon on the eastern sky around 3.30am in the morning. The object is reported to be visible till around 6am and having movements and change of shape and color. The Bengali TV channel Start Ananda flashed the news on 29th October 9pm News with a handycam video captured by a resident at his Kalikapur residence on E M Byepass at Kolkata. Also present at the event was MP Birla Planetarium director D P Duari for expert comment on that matter.
I've seen the repeatation at night in the same channel, probably at 12am. Since I go to bed late (work till late at night), I couldn't manage to get up early the next morning . Last evening, i.e. 30th, when I put on the TV, I saw it's already quite active with the news and lots of citizen reporting started pouring in. Probably half of Kolkata was sleepless last morning, to see the object. Many of them captured it on their handycams, some on their digital cameras too. Some of them was shown at the news program. The videos showed a lot of movements, but that seemed to be the movement of the capturing hand. One video seemed recorded keeping on a steady base, didn't show the movement of the object.
By that time, the curiosity started brewing in me. I've to see it next morning. There was a bad omen also, the sky was cloudy. Still hopeful, I went to bed early last night with an alarm set at 3.30am. The alarm rang out at the scheduled time and I'm on my feet. First tried the balcony, which shows up most of the eastern sky. The sky is still cloudy, but quite a portion has light or no cloud. The morning star (Venus) is very bright, but couldn't see any other bright object around. The Venus is in fact brighter this morning, than a previous night watch two months back at the evening. I waited till 4am to see if anything changes on the sky, or the conditon improves, but in vein. My wife said, she has seen it few times in the last month, whenever she got up at early morning.
I'm not sure yet, but it seemed people has not seen the early morning sky for quite long really (except a few, who burn their midnight oil till the wee hours) - the view of the bright Venus took them by surprise. I'll have a try tomorrow morning again and follow up the current situation at the TV channel.
I've seen the repeatation at night in the same channel, probably at 12am. Since I go to bed late (work till late at night), I couldn't manage to get up early the next morning . Last evening, i.e. 30th, when I put on the TV, I saw it's already quite active with the news and lots of citizen reporting started pouring in. Probably half of Kolkata was sleepless last morning, to see the object. Many of them captured it on their handycams, some on their digital cameras too. Some of them was shown at the news program. The videos showed a lot of movements, but that seemed to be the movement of the capturing hand. One video seemed recorded keeping on a steady base, didn't show the movement of the object.
By that time, the curiosity started brewing in me. I've to see it next morning. There was a bad omen also, the sky was cloudy. Still hopeful, I went to bed early last night with an alarm set at 3.30am. The alarm rang out at the scheduled time and I'm on my feet. First tried the balcony, which shows up most of the eastern sky. The sky is still cloudy, but quite a portion has light or no cloud. The morning star (Venus) is very bright, but couldn't see any other bright object around. The Venus is in fact brighter this morning, than a previous night watch two months back at the evening. I waited till 4am to see if anything changes on the sky, or the conditon improves, but in vein. My wife said, she has seen it few times in the last month, whenever she got up at early morning.
I'm not sure yet, but it seemed people has not seen the early morning sky for quite long really (except a few, who burn their midnight oil till the wee hours) - the view of the bright Venus took them by surprise. I'll have a try tomorrow morning again and follow up the current situation at the TV channel.
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