OZFRIEND: Hello..... I think I have come to realise what it was I saw yesterday.
BARDSQUILL: ????
OZFRIEND: did you get my message last night?
OZFRIEND: about the sighting?
BARDSQUILL: no, guess I didn't
OZFRIEND: I was outside looking at the stars, not a single cloud in the sky so perfect viewing conditions.
OZFRIEND: as I looked towards the east I saw what looked like a 'ripple' in the sky...
OZFRIEND: sort of like those really powerful light beacons they shine at movie openings etc.
OZFRIEND: It quickly moved across the sky and I could quickly see a few ripples of lighter/darker bands...
OZFRIEND: I was outside for about 10 more minutes in the hopes I would see it again, alas nothing... After thinking about there are only two explinations I can think of
OZFRIEND: 1 ) very strong light projected from the ground for a brief moment
OZFRIEND: 2 ) sunlight bounce back from the Iridium system
BARDSQUILL: hmmm, best give me time and location details
OZFRIEND: time would have been around 9:30PM.. 9:40
OZFRIEND: location... errr... probably 180 degrees facing the southern cross at the same height
BARDSQUILL: near which city?
OZFRIEND: so imagine looking at where the southern cross would be at night and then turing 180
OZFRIEND: melbourne
BARDSQUILL: duration of event (gettin clinical now, heh)
OZFRIEND: 3 to 4 seconds.
BARDSQUILL: color of bands
OZFRIEND: white....
OZFRIEND: light a dull white..
OZFRIEND: grey/darkgrey/gray/darkgrey
OZFRIEND: much like the wavy bands a cloud has after a thunderstorm.
BARDSQUILL: any nucleus within the bands?
OZFRIEND: nucleus? no... i
OZFRIEND: it was .. .errr... a large circular area that was 'lit up'
BARDSQUILL: say to suggest a potential solid object whizzing by?
OZFRIEND: it would be better and more descriptive to say it was like a large ghostly apparition flying at a significantly large height.
OZFRIEND: prolly 4 moons across.
OZFRIEND: at the height of say,.. the really high altitude clouds
BARDSQUILL: lets see can you convert time to GMT
OZFRIEND: I think we are +11 hours ahead making it...
BARDSQUILL: was a powerful proron explosion on sun, see if there's a correlation.
OZFRIEND: 10:30AM
BARDSQUILL: BINGO
BARDSQUILL: look at this SOHO at 10:06
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/javagif/gifs_small/20001016_1006_c2.gif
OZFRIEND: I have already downloaded the large 1024x1024 version of that picture actually
BARDSQUILL: assuming we are targeting the same day/time
OZFRIEND: last night
BARDSQUILL: same time?
BARDSQUILL: looks like a hit converting to GMT
OZFRIEND: 17th 9:30PM translates to 16th 10:30
OZFRIEND: shockwave?
BARDSQUILL: jeez, never heard of a proton blast having been seen at ground level, could be a first.
OZFRIEND: give me a sec.. my history should give me an idea when I visited the elfrad site ...
OZFRIEND: doh... not in my history.
BARDSQUILL: Did you grab the Elfrad cam data by any chance?
OZFRIEND: I did...
OZFRIEND: I did two or three refreshes of it.
BARDSQUILL: cool...best send
BARDSQUILL: I'll try to present this somehow
BARDSQUILL: think it's a first
OZFRIEND: if you want I can use skyglobe to give an estimated 'position' in the sky.
BARDSQUILL: yea, let's do it.
OZFRIEND: I will get back online in about 3 hours.. have some things to do.
BARDSQUILL: those particles that blew of the sun seemed really condensed and powerful, whatever they were exactly.
OZFRIEND: talk to you soon...seeya
BARDSQUILL: ok, when ye get a chance, send all data. I'll save this IM
OZFRIEND: ok.