OT - stars and planets
 

Last night I saw an extremely bright point of light in the sky. I'm in
London and this light was to the East. Could anyone help me to identify
it? It was really amazingly bright.

--
message by the incredible Robin May.
"The British don't like successful people" - said by British failures

Who is Abi Titmuss? What is she? Why is she famous?
http://robinmay.fotopic.net

OT - stars and planets
 

On 26 Aug 2004 22:36:57 GMT, Robin May
wrote in :
Last night I saw an extremely bright point of light in the sky. I'm in
London and this light was to the East. Could anyone help me to identify
it? It was really amazingly bright.

What time? Venus is generally the brightest but it stays relatively
close to the sun (obviously). There are websites out there that will
recreate the sky for you at a given position at a given time, but I don't
have a reference offhand. Was it staying fixed relative to the other
stars? If not, it was likely the International Space Station, which is
rather bright (I saw it a couple of times after dusk, waiting for a bus
in Whetstone) and will drop out of view in 5-15 minutes depending on the
sun angle.

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Room 40-1-B12, CERN
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

OT - stars and planets
 

Robin May wrote the following in:


Last night I saw an extremely bright point of light in the sky.
I'm in London and this light was to the East. Could anyone help me
to identify it? It was really amazingly bright.

Oh dear, how embarassing. I posted this to the wrong newsgroup. Sorry
about that.

--
message by the incredible Robin May.
"The British don't like successful people" - said by British failures

Who is Abi Titmuss? What is she? Why is she famous?
http://robinmay.fotopic.net

OT - stars and planets
 

Robin May writes:
Oh dear, how embarassing. I posted this to the wrong newsgroup. Sorry
about that.

You meant to post it to a *different* newsgroup that it would have been
off-topic for?
--
Mark Brader | "[Jupiter's] satellites are invisible to the naked eye
Toronto | and therefore can have no influence on the Earth
| and therefore would be useless
| and therefore do not exist." -- Francesco Sizi

OT - stars and planets
 

On 26 Aug 2004, Robin May wrote:

Last night I saw an extremely bright point of light in the sky. I'm in
London and this light was to the East. Could anyone help me to identify
it? It was really amazingly bright.

The second coming.

THERE.

tom

--
Like Kurosawa i make mad films; okay, i don't make films, but if i did they'd have a samurai.

OT - stars and planets
 

JRS: In article , dated Thu,
26 Aug 2004 22:36:57, seen in news:uk.transport.london, Robin May
posted :

Last night I saw an extremely bright point of light in the sky. I'm in
London and this light was to the East. Could anyone help me to identify
it? It was really amazingly bright.

For how long did you see it, and at what altitude was it?

If it was fairly low, it could well have been heading for Heathrow; I
often see them from here, with no apparent movement for a minute or so,
at a magnitude in the -5 to -10 region. They usually twinkle or jitter
a little.

--
© John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v4.00 MIME. ©
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
some Astro stuff via astro.htm, gravity0.htm; quotes.htm; pascal.htm; &c, &c.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News.

OT - stars and planets
 

Dr Ivan D. Reid wrote in uk.transport.london on Thu, 26 Aug 2004
23:13:48 +0000 (UTC) :

If not, it was likely the International Space Station, which is
rather bright (I saw it a couple of times after dusk, waiting for a bus
in Whetstone)

Did it have an Oyster card, then?

SCNR


--
nice (adj)
- often used in vague commendation by those who are not nice
(Chambers 20th Century Dictionary)

OT - stars and planets
 

On Fri, 27 Aug 2004 18:13:55 +0100, Dave Hillam postmaster@[
wrote in :
Dr Ivan D. Reid wrote in uk.transport.london on Thu, 26 Aug 2004
23:13:48 +0000 (UTC) :

If not, it was likely the International Space Station, which is
rather bright (I saw it a couple of times after dusk, waiting for a bus
in Whetstone)

Did it have an Oyster card, then?

heh! No, this was 2002, before Oyster was yer choice ter[1].

[1] http://www.joelmartin.com/quotes/datfiles/off/limerick
According to experts, the oyster
In its shell - a crustacean cloister -
May frequently be
Either he or a she
Or both, if it should be its choice ter.

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Room 40-1-B12, CERN
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

OT - stars and planets
 

fOn Fri, 27 Aug 2004 17:57:41 +0100, Dr John Stockton
wrote in :
JRS: In article , dated Thu,
26 Aug 2004 22:36:57, seen in news:uk.transport.london, Robin May
posted :

Last night I saw an extremely bright point of light in the sky. I'm in
London and this light was to the East. Could anyone help me to identify
it? It was really amazingly bright.

For how long did you see it, and at what altitude was it?

If it was fairly low, it could well have been heading for Heathrow; I
often see them from here, with no apparent movement for a minute or so,
at a magnitude in the -5 to -10 region. They usually twinkle or jitter
a little.

That was my later thought. I also used to see bright lights in
the sky, waiting for a bus at Arnos Grove[1], and it took me a couple of
sightings (more realistically, the first significant wait for a bus!) to
realise they were moving. From here (Cowley) I often see a string of 5 or
6 spread out to the east when I walk home after dark.

[1] Obligatory ambiguous phrase yet again.

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Room 40-1-B12, CERN
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

OT - stars and planets
 

In message , Dave Hillam
] writes
Dr Ivan D. Reid wrote in uk.transport.london on Thu, 26 Aug 2004
23:13:48 +0000 (UTC) :

If not, it was likely the International Space Station, which is
rather bright (I saw it a couple of times after dusk, waiting for a bus
in Whetstone)

Did it have an Oyster card, then?

Sometimes, just sometimes, something appears on here which makes me roar
out loud. This is one of those occasions. Thank you! :-))))
--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk