Ok, live webcam from Antarctica, NEW UPDATE

your thoughts please, there is a light in top right hand corner that seems to get bigger over time, hopefully it's just a star, what do you folks think!! guess i just gettin paranoid about the comet stuff lol


www.aad.gov.au...


DOH! the link might help lol
[Edited on 2-6-2004 by Mindsmog]





[Edited on 4-6-2004 by Mindsmog]

[Edited on 5-6-2004 by Mindsmog]

[edit on 16-6-2004 by Mindsmog]

INCOMING!!!!!!!!!

Well it is going right to left and it is dropping lower in the sky.

Is this the one of which the prophets foretold?

[Edited on 2-6-2004 by ab2tw]

The 4 frames in question: Satellite?

if it were an asteroid it wouldn't show up! asteroids are small compared to planets and reflect reletively no light at all. the only way the see an asteroid is when it passes in front of, or occults, a star.

as for ot moving? is ground moving too? antartica is a very windy place, it being a desert and all... also, there's nothing else in the sky to give a frame of reference. in other words, your eyes are playing tricks on you.

EDIT: SO just posted before i did... as for it being a sattellite? i doubt it, it's moving far too slowly if you look at the time stamps.

i stand by saying it's not an asteroid though.

[Edited on 6/2/2004 by cmdrkeenkid]

whatever it is seems to be moving and glowing!!! it gets brighter then dimmer and yes it moves right to left. Would like more opinions on this, especially from the astronomy people! i don't like jumping to conclusions but this does indeed feel strange to say the least!

Satellite... check the 24 hours ago image: If it was there 24 hours ago, it's probably a satellite with a 24-hour orbit.

Theres no way its venus?

thanks for putting the frames together SO , makes it a bit easier to see. Well My thoughts after looking at that are maybe it is a satellite after all, rather it be that than an asteroid lol

if i knew which direction the webcam was pointing i could probably say what it is. does it say and i've just missed it?

if the object starts to "climb" back away from the horizon it's a star or planet. i'm still doubting it to be a sattellite though. it's too bright. the only way a sattellite can get that bright is by causing an irridium flare, and those only last breifly.

[Edited on 6/2/2004 by cmdrkeenkid]

It also shows up in the "This Time Last Week" image.

If it is there today, yesterday, and this time last week, I would lean a lot more toward the satellite suggestion.

alright, you brought me over to the sattellite concept. it just seems far to bright to me... but as i said before, there's no real frame of reference so my eyes could just be tricking me.

The station appears to be on the coast, and on the pic from 9.46 am, sunlight can be seen on the right of the frame..so I'd guess that the webcam is pointing roghly North or North Easterly.

It seems too big and bright to be a satelite. The ones I've seen are not really any brighter than a star, and move a lot quicker accross the sky. The camera angle seems to vary slightly from shot to shot, as you can see from the foreground buildings.

Could it be a light on a tall aerial? In this country, such lights are red and flashing, but Antarctica may have different rules and regs for this kind of thing?

only if the ariel is moving across the ice at a steady pace.....

Originally posted by ab2tw
only if the ariel is moving across the ice at a steady pace.....

Yeah, I just looked at the frame sthat SO posted...no way it's an aerial. what a cr*p idea I had!

it's times like this i wish I knew more about astronomy, i have never seen a satellite or anything like this in the sky , so can't say for sure, I have nothing to compare it to Is it possible a satellite in south pole will be brighter because the sky is clearer?? maybe? Just trying to cover all angles here, as I find this sort of thing interesting and to be honest I really haven't got a clue what it is.

no, i won't let this die... calling it a sattellite does seem right to me, so using my starry night software i did some research. first off, from the website in mindsmog's initial post:

This picture is usually updated automatically every 10 minutes. The date/time on the picture shows local Mawson time, which is 5 hours behind Australian Eastern Summer Time and 6 hours ahead of UTC (GMT).

i set my location to antartica, 6 hours ahead of GMT. i then set the time speed to 10 minute intervals. i also set the date and time to that of the most recent picture of the object. this is what i ended up seeing, when looking west. (please bear with my crappy gif)



[Edited on 6/2/2004 by cmdrkeenkid]

Nice work!! cmdrkeenkid

Very nice work with the stary night show. But what about Paul's North - NE direction assumption? That would have to be pretty far off, wouldn't it?

Originally posted by waltmarkers
But what about Paul's North - NE direction assumption? That would have to be pretty far off, wouldn't it?

yeah, i thought that as well at first. then i remembered that it's heading into the winter months in antartica, so they may have a very short night or even a sort of dusk-to-dawn with no night situation going on. that's my best as to why there is still some light.