UFO-Forschung - UFO´s im Alltag

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UFO-Forschung - UFO-Alarm in Dänemark durch Apple App "AlienSky"

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Unsere Forschungskollegen von SUFOI wurden von der dänischen Zeitung Ekstra Bladet zu diesem Foto-Fall befragt, da die Redaktion keine Erklärung dafür hatte. Nach anfänglichen Verdacht das es sich hierbei um eine normale Linsen-Reflexion handelte, entpuppte sich nach längerer Auseinandersetzung mit dem Foto nach Veröffentlichung das es sich hierbei um eine I-Phon-Apple-App "Alien-Sky" -Foto handelt. Weitere Aufnahmen wurden der Redaktion von Ekstra Bladet danach zugesandt.

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Aufnahme aus Ekstra Bladet und nachfolgende Aufnahmen welche die Ursache erklären / Quelle: SUFOI

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UFO-Forschung - Chris Cassidy sieht UFO bei ISS...

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20.08.2013

US Navy: Navy SEAL Astronaut on Space Station Interview Navy Live blog coverage of the interview with U.S. Navy SEAL Cmdr. 
Chris Cassidy on the International Space Station. We discussed the Navy's unmanned and manned role in space as well as Cmdr. Cassidy's 
own experiences during a live interview Friday.

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Frams: NAVY-TV

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NASA-TV: Unidentified object floating outside station? Sort of... / Space Station Reports UFO To Mission Control Who Claim Its An Antenna Cover 8-19-2013

On the morning of August 19, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy noticed an unidentified object floating outside the space station, near the Progress cargo vehicle. He called down to Mission Control Houston and took some video of it. Was it a UFO? Not really...Russian ground controllers identified it as an antenna cover from the Zvezda service module.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy radioed Mission Control to report an UFO 'unidentified object' floating outside the International Space Station on Aug. 19, 2013.

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Frams: NASA-TV

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NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy alerted ground controllers on Monday to an unidentified flying object floating near the International Space Station — but this was no alien spacecraft.

Instead, it was a piece of the station itself: Russian ground controllers identified it as an antenna cover from the Zvezda service module, one of the oldest parts of the station.

The sighting merited just a brief mention in NASA's latest space station status report, plus a short clip on NASA's YouTube channel. Because the antenna cover's speed in relation to the rest of the station was so low, it didn't pose that much of a collision hazard. But controllers were glad to see the debris fade off into the distance, heading for what they expected would be a brief, fiery re-entry in the atmosphere.

This wasn't the first station debris to cause a UFO stir: Back in 1998, during the shuttle Endeavour's mission to hook the U.S.-built Unity connecting node to the Russian-made Zvezda module, astronauts spotted a blobby object floating away from the scene. NASA determined that the object was a discarded thermal cover, but that didn't stop UFO fans from working the material into their tale of a mysterious "Black Knight" satellite that has been circling our planet for millennia.

Quelle: NBC

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Update: 22.08.2013

The cover that came loose was spotted out of the ISS’ windows by Expedition crew members, was videoed the cover floating outside of the Station.

“Service Module (SM) Antenna Cover: The crew reported that they saw an item floating aft of the International Space Station (ISS). The object was later identified to be a SM antenna cover,” noted ISS status information.

“There are several similar covers on the SM and the team is working to identify which one was lost. Based upon the crew’s relative motion estimate, the antenna cover is not considered to be a recontact threat.”

The spacewalkers tightened the screws on the other WAL antennas during the EVA.

UFO-Forschung - Stasi dokumentierte UFOs über West-Berlin

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Ausriss aus der Ufo-Akte der Staatssicherheit, der den Zwischenfall von 1983 an der Grenze zu Westberlin schildert

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Diesen B.Z.-Bericht von 1985 heftete die Stasi in ihrer Akte ab

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Quelle: BZ

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Update: 22.08.2013

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Weitere Einblicke in die Stasi-Ufo-Akten / Quelle 'BZ, O.Krüger'

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Wie wir aus sicherer Quelle wissen, war zu dieser Zeit verstärkte Republikflucht mit selbstgebauten UL´s in der damaligen DDR und die Grenztruppen mit diesen Flucht-Versuchen vertraut. Und die Unterlagen von November 1983 lassen die Vermutung zu das es ein Fluchtversuch war.

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Dieser Vorfall war eine helle Feuerkugel welche über ganz Deutschland und darüber hinaus beobachtet wurde. CENAP bekam viele Meldungen über Sternwarten, Planetarien, Polizei und selbst von der DFS (siehe nachfolgende Screenshots von der CENAP-Timeline welche sie ebenfalls hier auf der Homepage finden)

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Quelle: CENAP-Archiv

UFO-Forschung - ShortNews IFO-Vertuschung am laufenden Band

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Wie sich UFOLOGEN mangels UFO-Beweis verzweifelt sich selbst mit IFO-Vertuschung ihre UFO-Vertuschung am Leben erhalten...

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Es stellt sich die Frage, wie weit die Verantwortlichen für solche News selbst daran glauben wollen, was sie wie nachfolgend als aktuelles Beispiel verbreiten:

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Screenshot: ShortNews vom 24.08.2013

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Apollo 15 LM Falcon während Rendezvous mit Apollo-Command/Service Modul Endeavour  über dem Mond

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Fotos:  NASA

Ufologie - BBC-Team mit UFO-Gläubigen wurde mit Waffengewalt bei Area 51 aufgehalten / CIA-Statement zu Area 51

12.10.2012

UFO-Forschung - CENAP UFO-Hotline in Deutsche Welle (DW)-Beitrag

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Zu sehen hier: http://www.dw.de/episode-22-ufo-hotline/a-17050842 

UFO-Forschung - Himmelsphänomene

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Himmelsphänomen über Mannheim

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UFO-Forschung - Ist Komet ISON ein UFO? Flog bei LADEE-Start ein UFO vorbei?

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Is Comet ISON a UFO? Hubble's scientists do a reality check

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It's not at all certain that Comet ISON will turn out to be the "comet of the century," as hoped, but a couple of things are certain: It's not an alien spaceship, and it hasn't split up into three pieces.

Those were apparently questions on the minds of some folks last month, thanks to a flurry of videos and blog postings based on imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope's archives. The hoohah got hot enough to merit an official response, posted to the Space Telescope Science Institute's archive website and its ISON Blog.

It all started with a series of images captured by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 UVIS instrument on April 30. Various exposures were combined to produce a widely distributed color picture of Comet ISON against a background field of stars. When Internet sleuths took a close look at the archived image, it looked as if there were three separate objects hiding in the glare of ISON's coma.

Was ISON breaking up? Was the comet being escorted by two alien spacecraft? No. Just no.

Richard White, principal investigator for the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes, explained that the image was a composite, created by averaging the data from three separate camera exposures. The three objects are just different views of Comet ISON's nucleus.

"The comet itself does not have three pieces," White wrote. "They are an artifact from adding up the separate exposures. The comet does not look the same in each exposure because both the comet and the Hubble telescope are moving during the exposure. The comet is blurred, just as a picture taken out the window of a moving car will be blurred."

Check out the full explanation, and to get the latest prognostications on how bright Comet ISON will get in November, check in with the ISON Facebook page as well as the Comets Mailing List and the Twitter hashtag #ISON.

This is a close-up from a composite Hubble image that has been manipulated to show what appear to be three objects. They're actually three exposures of the same object: Comet ISON.

This is the image of Comet ISON that incorporates the three exposures from April 30 to produce a color image.

Quelle: NBC

UFO bei LADEE-Start?

Und auch hierbei gibt es Entwarnung, kein UFO sondern nur lösendes Raketenteil zeigt dieses Fram aus Start-Video

UFO-Forschung - UFO-Werbung der speziellen Art in Kanada

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Planetarium in Kanada stellt Kurz-Video bei YouTube für die Ufo-Gemeinde ein mit bisher über 238000 Klicks:

Frams:

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Offizielles Werbe-Statment:

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Weiteres UFO-Werbe-Video als Animation von Planetarium-Kuppel auf YouTube mit knapp 400 Klicks:

Frams:

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Quelle: Planetarium Vancouver

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Watch: ‘UFO sighting’ over Nat Bailey stadium was a sneaky marketing trick 

A video showing a space ship looking object hovering near the stadium has over 200,000 views on YouTube.

It was shot by a marketing agency hired by the space centre, and was picked up by the Huffington Post and Daily Mail.

YouTube videos shot by other baseball fans are also making the rounds on the Internet.Hashtag #luckyUFO is being used on Twitter to talk about the sightings because the ‘UFO appearances’ coincided with two wins by Vancouver Canadians, the last of which led the team to the Northwest League Championship.

The centre underwent a half million dollar upgrade this summer and has seen its attendance numbers go up 65 per cent in the month of August.

“We are a fully digital video system now. We have jumped from 70′s technology to state-of-the-art,” says MacMillan’s executive director Rob Appleton.

The hoax was just another way to let the public know about the improvements.

“The point was to break through all the clutter in the world and to say we have a new digital planetarium,” says Appleton.

The video went from a 100,000 views yesterday morning to over 200,000 views today, which Appleton says was a surprise to them.

“In our heyday, word of mouth was a big thing. Now, it is much better with social media. This has gone way beyond what we expected would happen. And that is the unpredictability of social media. Either it will go or it won’t. From my point of view, it just really took off.”

Appleton says while the drone was just a meter in diameter and was remotely controlled, public safety was an important priority for them.

“They were originally going to fly it over the fireworks and things like that. But then [we decided] — no people, no water. The Canadians game was across the street… and they only flew it up and down. They did not fly it over the road or anything. It appeared in the outfield over the trees.”

The UFO remained a mystery to many — including Vancouver Canadians — until the centre decided to go public with it today.

“We had no clue about it, what-so-over,” says Rob Fai with Vancouver Canadians. “We knew it was not real, but nobody actually came to us with anything. We just saw a huge amount of media covering this UFO. It really drew the attention of the crowd.”

Fai says many members of the audience noticed it right away.

“It’s got the attention of everybody in the ballpark. And then it went away, as quickly as it came.”

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Quelle:Global NEWS + Frams: Global-NEWS-Video;

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Quelle: Global-NEWS

UFO-Forschung - UFO-Effekt über Russland beim Start von Soyus-TM10 mit ISS-Crew-37/38

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Frams aus ersten Beobachter-Video.

UFO-Forschung - Weitere Vergleichs-Video-Aufnahmen vom 14.Mai 2013 zu Fall Greifswald aus Russland

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Eine weitere schöne Aufnahme der "Greifswald-Lichter" ist aus Russland bekannt geworden, welche am 14.Mai 2013 aufgenommen wurde. Auch diese Video-Aufnahme zeigt das gleiche Verhalten wie wir es vom eigentlichen Greifswald-Fall her kennen und unterstreicht wiederum das es sich hier um Einsatz von SAB-Bomben handelt welche zu Übungszwecken der Streitkräfte eingesetzt werden. Nachfolgende Frams von Video aus Russland:

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UFO-Forschung - TV-Tip: "Hirngespinste - Wenn uns die Sinne trügen": ZDF Wissenschaftsreihe "Abenteuer Forschung" am 1.Oktober 2013

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"Hirngespinste - Wenn uns die Sinne trügen": ZDF Wissenschaftsreihe

"Abenteuer Forschung" über die Grenzen unserer Wahrnehmung

Mainz (ots) - In der neuen Folge des ZDF-Wissenschaftsmagazins

"Abenteuer Forschung" am Dienstag, 1. Oktober 2013, 23.25 Uhr, begibt

sich Professor Harald Lesch auf die Suche nach den Phänomenen in

unserem Kopf. "Hirngespinste - Wenn uns die Sinne trügen" gibt

erstaunliche Antworten auf Fragen, die vermeintlich ins Reich der

Phantasie gehören.

Fünf Sinne hat der Mensch, doch können wir uns auf diese wirklich

immer verlassen? Der Mond beispielsweise erscheint uns manchmal größer

als sonst. Aber warum? Von Zauberern lassen wir uns gern täuschen.

Zwar weiß jeder, dass die Illusionen der Magier auf Tricks beruhen,

trotzdem ist es beinahe unmöglich, hinter ihre Geheimnisse zu kommen.

Der Schlüsselbegriff zur Erklärung des Phänomens heißt selektive

Wahrnehmung. Für sogenannte Inselbegabte ist alles gleich wichtig,

alle Sinneseindrücke bahnen sich ungefiltert ihren Weg ins Gehirn.

Dadurch sind diese Menschen zu außergewöhnlichen Gedächtnisleistungen

im Stande. Menschen mit besonderen Fähigkeiten stehen im Fokus von

Geheimdiensten. Bereits zu Zeiten des Kalten Krieges rief die CIA ein

Projekt ins Leben, bei dem bestimmte Agenten auf parapsychologischem

Weg Informationen von entfernten Orten ausspionieren sollten.

Wissenschaftler sind Telepathie und Co. auf der Spur. Was hat es mit

diesem berühmt-berüchtigten sechsten Sinn auf sich?

Professor Harald Lesch präsentiert eine Sendung, die bis an die

Grenzen der Wahrnehmung - und darüber hinaus - führt. Er berichtet von

ungewöhnlichen Fähigkeiten, von UFOs* sowie von vermeintlichen

Entführungen durch Aliens und erklärt, was unsere Sinne dazu bringt,

Eindrücke zu vermitteln, die nichts mit der Wirklichkeit zu tun haben.

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Frams: ZDF-Beitrag 2009

UFO-Forschung - Mein erstes UFO... oder geheimer Raketentest?

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...und es hat mich nicht mitgenommen. Schade. Egal, spannend ist allemal, was wir bei unserem kürzlichen La-Palma-Aufenthalt aufgenommen haben. Eigentlich wollten wir das größte optische Teleskop der Welt, das GranTeCan, bei der Arbeit filmen. Das ist auch gelungen, doch beim Zusammensetzen des Zeitraffers fiel mir ein ziemlich merkwürdiges Objekt auf. Hier die entscheidende Stelle:

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21.09.2013

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Frams aus Zeitraffer-Aufnahme:Jan Hattenbach

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UPDATE, 21-09.: Marco Langbroek hat in einer sehr ausführlichen Analyse dargelegt, dass eigentlich nur ein geheimer Raketenstart einer ballistischen Rakete von einem UBoot im Atlantik als Erklärung in Frage kommt. Die Helligkeitsschwankungen des Objekts deutet er als Zündungen mehrere Raketenstufen, höchstwahrscheinlich einer militärischen Trident Rakete, die von US-amerikanischen und britischen UBooten eingesetzt werden.

Hier noch ein Stack des unten gezeigten Videos, der die Flugbahn des Objekts besser zeigt:

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Aufnahmedatum war der 10. September 2013, dargestellt sind 42 Einzelbilder mit je 5 Sekunden Belichtungszeit und 2 Sekunden Pause dazwischen, die zwischen 21:16 und 21:20 Uhr Ortszeit (23:16-23:20 MESZ) aufgenommen worden sind. Die Position der Kamera war direkt oberhalb des GranTeCan-Teleskops, in 2300m Höhe mit Blickrichtung West (Westen liegt genau in Richtung Kuppel), die geografische Koordinaten sind laut Google Earth 28°45'23,04"N und 17°53'20,06"W).

Das Objekt am linken Bildrand sieht verdächtig nach einer startenden Rakete aus, der "Nebel" könnten Abgase oder auch abgelassener Treibstoff sein - so etwas kann man hin und wieder am Himmel sehen.

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"Ufo-Alarm"? - Ein Raketenexperiment macht Wirbel

Für Aufregung sorgte gestern abend ein ungewöhnliches Himmelsereignis: Gegen 21:20 MESZ beobachteten zahllose Menschen mehrere seltsam leuchtende Wolken, die sich innerhalb weniger Minuten am Himmel ausbreiteten. Viele mutmaßten, es könne sich um helle Meteore, einen Kometen, Weltraumschrott oder gar um Ufos handeln - doch die richtige Erklärung ist eine andere!

Die ersten Beobachtungmeldungen gingen bereits wenige Minuten später in diversen Internetforen ein. Recht ähnlich lauten die Beschreibungen der Augenzeugen: Gegen 21:20 Uhr MESZ erschien demnach zunächst einleuchtender Lichtpunkt  am westlichen Himmel, der sich mit der typischen Geschwindigkeit eines erdnahen Satelliten Richtung Norden bewegte. Kurz dahinter zeigte sich eine "neblige Struktur", die manche Beobachter als ein "verglühendes Teil" interpretierten. Hinter diesem wiederum tauchte eine weitere neblige, als trichterförmig oder auch "kometenartig" beschriebene Struktur, die der ersten in einem Abstand von mindestens 30° folgte.

Besonders beindruckend aber war wohl eine gewaltige, haloartige Wolkenerscheinung, die die kometenförmige Struktur umgab und den Berichten zufolge fast die Hälfte des Himmels bedeckte. Die Erscheinung dauerte nicht sehr lange - nach etwa 15 Minuten verblassten die Wolken und lösten sich auf, während sie zum Nordhorizont wanderten. 

Berichte zu diesem ungewöhnlichen Phänomen gibt es u. a. im Astrotreff-Forum, bei astronomie.de und natürlich im Forum des Arbeitskreises Meteore e. V. Hier, im meteoros-Forum, tauchten schon bald die ersten Bilder der Erscheinung auf. Besonders die hier gezeigte Bildserie illustriert das Phänomen sehr deutlich. (Edit: Diese hier auch - Gif-Animation ganz unten auf der Seite!)

Die Augenzeugenberichte und Fotos machten schnell deutlich, dass es sich weder um einen hellen Meteor (wie erst kürzlich mehrfach beobachtet) noch um einen Kometen handeln kann. Meteore sind verglühende Staubkörnchen in der Erdatmosphäre, die als Sternschnuppe kurzzeitig aufleuchten. Selbst wenn größere Brocken auf die Lufthülle der Erde treffen, so ist die Leuchterscheinung zwar viel beeindruckender (man spricht von Boliden oder Feuerkugeln), die Erscheinung ist aber in wenigen Sekunden vorüber. 

Ein Komet ist ein meist kilometergroßer Eis-und Felsbrocken, der das Sonnensystem durchquert und in der Nähe der Sonne "aufschmilzt" und als Schweifstern sichtbar wird. Obwohl Kometen relativ unvermutet auftreten können, tauchen sie dennoch nicht aus dem Nichts auf. Sie werden oft schon Monate oder Jahre vor ihrem Erscheinen am irdischen Nachthimmel entdeckt. Auch befinden sie sich weit von der Erde weg - viele Millionen Kilometer - so dass ihre Bewegung sehr langsam im Vergleich zu einem Meteor (der sich ja nur wenige Kilometer über und befindet) erscheint. Kometen sind meist tage- oder wochenlang zu sehen, also wesentlich länger als die Erscheinung von gestern abend.

Die Erklärung ist profaner: Am 18. Oktober um 18:12 MESZ hob von einer Militärbasis in Kalifornien eine Atlas-V-Rakete mit einem militärischen Wettersatelliten (DMSP F18) ab. Es handelte sich übrigens um den 600. Start einer Atlas-Rakete, einem "Arbeitspferd" der US-amerikanischen Raumfahrt. Nachdem die Rakete ihre Nutzlast in einen polaren Orbit verbracht hatte, blieb noch genügend Treibstoff an Bord, um einige weitere Test mit der verbleibenden Centaur-Raketenstufe durchzuführen. 

Der Höhepunkt dieser Experimente war ein letztes Zünden der Triebwerke, ziemlich genau drei Stunden nach dem Start - also zeitgleich mit dem Auftreten des Himmelsphänomens. Des Rätsels Lösung wurde ebenfalls schon kurz nach dem Eintreffen der ersten Meldungen über das Internet verbreitet: Es handelte sich bei den beobachteten Wolken um Raketenabgase von verbranntem Hydrazin, die freigesetzt wurden, als die Triebwerke noch einmal für 3 Minuten und 40 Sekunden eingeschaltet wurden und die Rakete von der Erde fort beschleunigten.

Edit: Auf dieser Karte der Raketenflugbahn (Quelle: United Launch Alliance) erkennt man deutlich, dass das Zünden des Triebwerks ("Disposal Burn", grüne Markierung) über Nordafrika startete und über Frankreich endete. Somit befand sich Westeuropa tatsächlich in einer Logenposition für die Beobachtung!  

Ein solches Manöver ist in der Tat ungewöhnlich. Häufig werden die ausgebrannten Raketenstufen zum kontrollierten Absturz in den Pazifik gelenkt. Dieses Mal wollten die Raumfahrtingenieure aber das Experiment am Himmel mitverfolgen, weswegen sie die Rakete immer höher steigen ließen und so für ein abendliches Spektakel sorgten. Schade nur, dass es keine Ankündigung gab. Ich hätte mich sonst mit meiner Kamera in Position gestellt...  

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Einzelbild aus dem Video. Es scheint, als würde Gas oder eine Flüssigkeit von einer Rakete ausgestoßen - oder werden hier Booster abgesprengt? (Bild: Georg Görgen)

Problem nur: Es gab am 10. September keine Raketenstarts. Zumindest keine offiziellen, und auch keine "geheimen". Geheim in dem Sinne, dass sie zwar nicht offiziell angekündigt sind, aber für spezialisierte Amateure durchaus nicht unbekannt sind (mit einem solchen Fall hatten wir es in diesem Blog schon einmal zu tun). Nachdem ich den Videoclip via Meteoros-Forum und Twitter in die Welt gesetzt hatte, machten sich auch gleich einige Experten daran, die Bahn des unbekannten Flugobjekts zu bestimmen und es zu identifizieren.

Bislang ohne entscheidenen Erfolg. Vielleicht hat ja ein aufmerksamer Blogleser eine Idee?

Zwei wichtige Fragen sind bereits abgeklopft:

Stimmen Datum und Zeit? Ja, nach mehrfacher Überprüfung ist sicher, dass es defiitiv der 10. September war. Unser Rückflug war ein Tag später, also am 11. September. Wer an diesem Tag fliegt, vergisst das Datum nicht so schnell. Auch die Zeit stimmt: Zwar ging die Kamerauhr um genau 6 Minuten und 17 Sekunden vor, aber dieser Fehler ist in den obigen Zeiten bereits korrigiert. Außerdem ist im Video ein zweiter, "normaler" Satellit zu sehen, der von zwei Experten unabhängig voneinander als Cosmos 1410 identifiziert wurde. Schließlich ist am linken unteren Bildrand knapp die untergehende Venus zu sehen. Deren Untergang berechnet calsky.com für La Palma am 10. September 2013 für 21:16 Uhr Ortszeit. Berücksichtigt man die Kimmtiefe von 1,5° auf 2300m Seehöhe, dann dürfte sich der Untergang um wenige Minuten verzögern, eben auf den Zeitraum des Videos: 21:16-21:20 Ortszeit.

Handelt es sich um einen Kamerareflex? Unwahrscheinlich, schon vom Aussehen des Objekts zu urteilen. Überzeugt, dass es definitiv ein Objekt am Himmel war, bin ich aber aus folgendem Grund: Zwar haben wir in den entscheidenen Minuten eine Kaffeepause in der Residencia des Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos gemacht, das eigentliche Ereignis also verpasst. Beim Hinausgehen erinnere mich aber an diese seltsame, vertikale "Wolke" am ansonsten völlig klaren Westhimmel. Wir unterhielten uns noch darüber und meinten, dass könne der persistent train einer Feuerkugel sein, und mit ein bisschen Glück sollten wir sie auf dem Film haben. Ich hatte diesen Vorfall schon wieder vergessen. Bis heute.

Halten wir also fest: Es handelt sich sicher um ein reales Himmelsobjekt, und auch Zeit und Datum sind bis auf eine geringe Unsicherheit bekannt. Was aber war es - wenn nicht ein Raketenstart? Bislang zeichnen sich vier Erklärungsmöglichkeiten ab:

Es war nicht nur ein geheimer, sonder ein sehr geheimer Start, von dem auch Satellitenbeobachter nicht wussten.

Es handelt sich um eine alte Raketenstufe, über die ebenfalls keine Daten von der US-Regierung veröffentlicht sind. Nach der Aussage eines Experten ist das möglich, es gibt wohl etliche Objekte, die dem Space-Debris-Tracking engehen. Dass ein solches Stück Weltraumschrott allerdings größere Mengen Treibstoff ablässt (wie soll sich sonst der "Nebel" erklären), kommt mir reichlich unwahrscheinlich vor.

Es war ein bekanntes Stück Weltraumschrott. Tatsächlich bewegte sich wenige Minuten später eine alte Atlas Centaur Raketenstufe in der gleichen Himmelsgegend. Die aber ist 50 Jahre alt und sollte keinen Treibstoff mehr enthalten, außerdem stimmen Bahn und Zeit eben doch nicht mit dem Video überein.

Satellitenexperte Marco Langbroek konnte bislang kein Objekt in den offiziellen NORAD-Katalogen und den inoffiziellen Amateurkatalogen finden, das mit "meinem" UFO übereinstimmen könnte. Am wahrscheinlichsten erscheint daher derzeit ein geheimer, suborbitaler ballistischer Raketenstart. Es braucht nicht viel Phantasie, dass dafür aller Wahrscheinlichkeit das US-Militär verantwortlich zeichnet, das jedenfalls legt schon die Flugbahn nahe. Ein Startpunkt in Florida oder einem anderen Ort in den Vereinigten Staaten ist wahrscheinlich.

Aber auch das ist bislang Spekulation. In jedem Fall ein interessanter Fund auf unseren "Urlaubsfotos"!

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Quelle: Mit freundlicher Genehmigung: Jan Hattenbach, http://www.scilogs.de/kosmo/blog/himmelslichter/content/about

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In the evening of September 10, 2013, German astrophotographer Jan Hattenbach was taking images with an f2.8/24mm lens near the GranTeCa dome, at 2300 meter altitude at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory on La Palma in the Canary Islands. His camera was looking due west, out over the Atlantic Ocean, in the direction of Bootes and Virgo. The intention was to create a time lapse movie.

Between 21:16 and 21:20 UT, he captured something unexpected on his images. A strange fuzzy bright object moved over the images, spouting cloudy puffs. Above is a stack of the images: it shows the GranTeCa dome, star trails, a normal satellite (Kosmos 1410)...and the strange cloudy phenomena coming under an oblique angle from the horizon. Below is a short movie made from the images (5 second images with a 2 second interval). Note that it is a time-lapse that speeds up the event: the whole phenomena took about 2.5 minutes in real time:

Jan wrote about his strange observation on his own blog (in German) and posted his story on the AKM forum and on Twitter. Rainer Kresken forwarded it to the SeeSat-L mailinglist, and science writer/journalist Daniel Fischer tweeted to Jonathan McDowell and me whether we could explain the phenomena. Next, Jan was so kind to make his original imagery available to me.

Initially Jan reported that the images were taken near 21:23 UT (Sept 10, 2013). However, it turned out that his camera clock was off by several minutes. The event in reality happened earlier.

Luckily, a "normal" satellite is visible in the image sequence too, briefly flaring, and Cees Bassa and me could identify that satellite as Kosmos 1410 (82-096A). As the orbit of this object is known, astrometry I performed on the trail yielded the correct image times. Jan's camera clock was off by 6m 17s, as it turned out. The phenomena took place between 21:16 and 21:20 UT.

After seeing the images, my first thought was that this could be a fuel vent by a rocket booster in Earth orbit. The time and trajectory did however not match any known object, unclassified or classified.

Another option was a satellite launch. There were however no launches scheduled for this date (and this includes launches of classified objects, which you really cannot keep secret. They are publicly announced as it involves temporary restrictions to airspace down te launch trajectory, and a very visible rocket ascent from Vandenberg or Canaveral).

At that point, I started to suspect that it could perhaps be a hush-hush suborbital ballistic missile launch test, similar to the September 2, 2013, US-Israeli missile test in the Mediterranean. Harvard space historian Jonathan McDowell communicated a similar suspicion, noting that the particular part of the Atlantic has seen Poseidon SLBM tests in the past.

The thing is, that no such test was announced for this date. For example, I have found no NOTAM's  restricting airspace over parts of the Atlantic because of a missile launch. That does not mean it is not a missile test though. It just means that whoever did the test, doesn't want to acknowledge it and preferred no-one to know about it. The September 2, US-Israeli test in the Mediterranean was not announced either (it came to light because it was detected by a Russian Early Warning Radar).

If the event seen from La Palma was indeed a clandestine Medium Range Ballistic Missile test (such as I believe is the case), the primary suspects are the Unites States or Great Britain, who both operate the Trident Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM); or the French, who operate the M45 and M51 SLBM.

Several points in the observation fit a SLBM test. The US/British Trident and the French M45/M51 are 3-stage missiles. In the stacked image and movie above, there are two sudden bursts of brightness in the trail, both accompanied by an expanding puffy cloud. I interpret these as the moments of jettison of the 1st stage and ignition of the 2nd stage; and ejection of the 2nd stage and ignition of the 3rd stage. I have marked these moments, taking place at 21:17:08 and 21:18:43 UT (so with a 1m 35s separation), in below detail of the stacked image. The corresponding astrometric positions of these points are RA 205.061, Dec -3.950, and RA 211.366, Dec -6.153 degrees.

Below are details from the single still images from those moments:

Below is a detail from a single frame just after what I interpret as the 3rd stage ignition, showing a bright fuzzy trail and expanding vapour clouds on both sides:

The duration of the event fits what is known of the Trident missile: from launch to 3rd stage ignition takes less than 2 minutes with the Trident. The 2nd stage ignites at about 70 km altitude, the 3rd at about 150km altitude.

A careful look at the stacked image shows that after what I interpret as the 3rd stage ignition, the trajectory clearly starts to deviate from the previous more or less straight line:

This is not an effect of lens distortion, as I will show below. It is a real deviation, that fits a missile launch. It shows unequivocally that the phenomena is not a fuel vent by a rocket booster in earth orbit. Such an object (moving in a Great Circle) would move in a straight line when positions are plotted in a Gnomonic projection. I did this for Jan's object: I astrometrically measured points on the trail and converted and plotted the measured RA/DEC in a gnomonic projection system. The same deviation that should not be there if this was an object in Earth orbit is visible in the RA/DEC data:

This makes very clear that Jan's object was not in orbit around the earth, but on a launch/ballistic trajectory. So we can definitely exclude a rocket booster orbiting the earth from a previous launch and venting fuel.

Just to support my previous argument further: here is what the trajectory in RA/DEC looks like for an object in an eccentric GTO orbit observed near perigee over a similar time span as Jan's object. The comparison object is the USA 40 rocket (1989-061D):

Assuming the La Palma event indeed was an unacknowledged Trident SLBM test by the USA or the British, the known specs of the Trident provide a (very) rough indication of where the launch took place.

As mentioned earlier, the 2nd stage of a Trident SLBM ignites at about 70 km altitude, the 3rd at about 150km altitude. As mentioned too above, I interpret two points in the trail to represent these moments. By measuring their astrometric position and calculating the corresponding azimuth and elevation in the sky, we can get a rough indication of distance and direction at these moments. I did this as a (please note) very rough back-of-the-envelope calculation. It suggests the launch took place near latitude 23-25N and a longitude several degrees West of  40 W. This is right in the middle of the Atlantic, at least 2000-3000 km from any coast in any direction. Again, that points to a Submarine launched missile. The launch azimuth is roughly 80-85 degrees, towards the African coast at a distance of over 3000 km.

The USA was testing missile intercepts near Kwajalein in the Pacific that same September 10. It is however highly unlikely that the launch that Jan seems to have captured is directly related, for the simple reason that a Trident launched in the Mid-Atlantic does not have the necessary reach to get to Kwajalein.

It is a busy time with missile tests: after the September 2 test in the Mediterranean, the September 10 tests near Kwajalein, and this potential unacknowledged test captured by Jan Hattenbach that same date, there was also a missile test in New Mexico on September 13. The Kwajalein tests were scheduled well before, but the unannounced September 2 test in the Mediterranean and perhaps also this unacknowledged September 10 test in the Atlantic might be part of ad hoc military practise exercises in connection to the continuing situation with Syria.

One question some might raise: why a Medium range Ballistic Missile launch? Why can't this not be an unacknowledged launch into Earth orbit? First: it would not be possible to keep such a launch from a US landbased site a secret. It would be seen over a wide area (like the New Mexico test) and necessitate temporary closure of parts of airspace. Moreover, altitudes and directions really point to a launch in the Mid-Atlantic. The only way to launch into Earth Orbit over the Mid Atlantic would be by an airborne launch using a Pegasus rocket.

All in all, and given the context of the situation in Syria and the September 2 test in the Mediterranean as well, it is much more likely that this is an unacknowledged SLBM test, launched from a US, British or French submarine in the Mid-Atlantic.

(note: I thank Jan Hattenbach for making available his original imagery and for his permission to use it on this blog. And I thank Cees Bassa, Jonathan McDowell, Rainer Kresken and Daniel Fischer for discussions. Conclusions and any errors are solely mine).

Quelle: SatTrackCam Leiden

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Update: 27.09.2013

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UPDATE, 21.09.: Marco Langbroek hat in einer sehr ausführlichen Analyse dargelegt, dass eigentlich nur ein geheimer Raketenstart einer ballistischen Rakete von einem UBoot im Atlantik als Erklärung in Frage kommt. Die Helligkeitsschwankungen des Objekts deutet er als Zündungen mehrere Raketenstufen, höchstwahrscheinlich einer militärischen Trident Rakete, die von US-amerikanischen und britischen UBooten eingesetzt werden.

Hier noch ein Stack des unten gezeigten Videos, der die Flugbahn des Objekts besser zeigt:

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[UPDATED: confirmed!] A clandestine launch in the Mid-Atlantic on Sep 10, captured by a German astrophotographer?

UPDATE 24 Sep 2013 18:00:

It has now been confirmed that this was a US Trident SLBM test launched from an Ohio-class submerged submarine! So I was right! 

(note added 25 Sep 2013: a post with more info subsequently come to light and an update on the probable launch trajectory is available here)

In the evening of September 10, 2013, German astrophotographer Jan Hattenbach was taking images with an f2.8/24mm lens near the GranTeCa dome, at 2300 meter altitude at the Roque de los Muchachos observatory on La Palma in the Canary Islands. His camera was looking due west, out over the Atlantic Ocean, in the direction of Bootes and Virgo. The intention was to create a time lapse movie.

Between 21:16 and 21:20 UT, he captured something unexpected on his images. A strange fuzzy bright object moved over the images, spouting cloudy puffs. Above is a stack of the images: it shows the GranTeCa dome, star trails, a normal satellite (Kosmos 1410)...and the strange cloudy phenomena coming under an oblique angle from the horizon. Below is a short movie made from the images (5 second images with a 2 second interval). Note that it is a time-lapse that speeds up the event: the whole phenomena took about 2.5 minutes in real time:

 

Jan wrote about his strange observation on his own blog (in German) and posted his story on the AKM forum and on Twitter. Rainer Kresken forwarded it to the SeeSat-L mailinglist, and science writer/journalist Daniel Fischer tweeted to Jonathan McDowell and me whether we could explain the phenomena. Next, Jan was so kind to make his original imagery available to me.

Initially Jan reported that the images were taken near 21:23 UT (Sept 10, 2013). However, it turned out that his camera clock was off by several minutes. The event in reality happened earlier.

Luckily, a "normal" satellite is visible in the image sequence too, briefly flaring, and Cees Bassa and me could identify that satellite as Kosmos 1410 (82-096A). As the orbit of this object is known, astrometry I performed on the trail yielded the correct image times. Jan's camera clock was off by 6m 17s, as it turned out. The phenomena took place between 21:16 and 21:20 UT.

After seeing the images, my first thought was that this could be a fuel vent by a rocket booster in Earth orbit. The time and trajectory did however not match any known object, unclassified or classified.

Another option was a satellite launch. There were however no launches scheduled for this date (and this includes launches of classified objects, which you really cannot keep secret. They are publicly announced as it involves temporary restrictions to airspace down te launch trajectory, and a very visible rocket ascent from Vandenberg or Canaveral).

At that point, I started to suspect that it could perhaps be a hush-hush suborbital ballistic missile launch test, similar to the September 2, 2013, US-Israeli missile test in the Mediterranean. Harvard space historian Jonathan McDowell communicated a similar suspicion, noting that the particular part of the Atlantic has seen Poseidon SLBM tests in the past.

The thing is, that no such test was announced for this date. For example, I have found no NOTAM's  restricting airspace over parts of the Atlantic because of a missile launch. That does not mean it is not a missile test though. It just means that whoever did the test, doesn't want to acknowledge it and preferred no-one to know about it. The September 2, US-Israeli test in the Mediterranean was not announced either (it came to light because it was detected by a Russian Early Warning Radar).

If the event seen from La Palma was indeed a clandestine Medium Range Ballistic Missile test (such as I believe is the case), the primary suspects are the Unites States or Great Britain, who both operate the Trident Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM); or the French, who operate the M45 and M51 SLBM.

Several points in the observation fit a SLBM test. The US/British Trident and the French M45/M51 are 3-stage missiles. In the stacked image and movie above, there are two sudden bursts of brightness in the trail, both accompanied by an expanding puffy cloud. I interpret these as the moments of jettison of the 1st stage and ignition of the 2nd stage (note: but see update here); and ejection of the 2nd stage and ignition of the 3rd stage. I have marked these moments, taking place at 21:17:08 and 21:18:43 UT (so with a 1m 35s separation), in below detail of the stacked image. The corresponding astrometric positions of these points are RA 205.061, Dec -3.950, and RA 211.366, Dec -6.153 degrees.

Below is a detail from a single frame just after what I interpret as the 3rd stage ignition, showing a bright fuzzy trail and expanding vapour clouds on both sides:

The duration of the event fits what is known of the Trident missile: from launch to 3rd stage ignition takes less than 2 minutes with the Trident. The 2nd stage ignites at about 70 km altitude, the 3rd at about 150km altitude.

A careful look at the stacked image shows that after what I interpret as the 3rd stage ignition, the trajectory clearly starts to deviate from the previous more or less straight line:

This is not an effect of lens distortion, as I will show below. It is a real deviation, that fits a missile launch. It shows unequivocally that the phenomena is not a fuel vent by a rocket booster in earth orbit. Such an object (moving in a Great Circle) would move in a straight line when positions are plotted in a Gnomonic projection. I did this for Jan's object: I astrometrically measured points on the trail and converted and plotted the measured RA/DEC in a gnomonic projection system. The same deviation that should not be there if this was an object in Earth orbit is visible in the RA/DEC data:

 

This makes very clear that Jan's object was not in orbit around the earth, but on a launch/ballistic trajectory. So we can definitely exclude a rocket booster orbiting the earth from a previous launch and venting fuel.

Just to support my previous argument further: here is what the trajectory in RA/DEC looks like for an object in an eccentric GTO orbit observed near perigee over a similar time span as Jan's object. The comparison object is the USA 40 rocket (1989-061D):

Assuming the La Palma event indeed was an unacknowledged Trident SLBM test by the USA or the British, the known specs of the Trident provide a (very) rough indication of where the launch took place.

As mentioned earlier, the 2nd stage of a Trident SLBM ignites at about 70 km altitude, the 3rd at about 150km altitude. As mentioned too above, I interpret two points in the trail to represent these moments. By measuring their astrometric position and calculating the corresponding azimuth and elevation in the sky, we can get a rough indication of distance and direction at these moments. I did this as a (please note) very rough back-of-the-envelope calculation. It suggests the launch took place near latitude 23-25N and a longitude several degrees West of  40 W. This is right in the middle of the Atlantic, at least 2000-3000 km from any coast in any direction. Again, that points to a Submarine launched missile. The launch azimuth is roughly 80-85 degrees, towards the African coast at a distance of over 3000 km. (note added 25 Sept: but see update here that somewhat changes the picture)

The USA was testing missile intercepts near Kwajalein in the Pacific that same September 10. It is however highly unlikely that the launch that Jan seems to have captured is directly related, for the simple reason that a Trident launched in the Mid-Atlantic does not have the necessary reach to get to Kwajalein.

It is a busy time with missile tests: after the September 2 test in the Mediterranean, the September 10 tests near Kwajalein, and this potential unacknowledged test captured by Jan Hattenbach that same date, there was also a missile test in New Mexico on September 13. The Kwajalein tests were scheduled well before, but the unannounced September 2 test in the Mediterranean and perhaps also this unacknowledged September 10 test in the Atlantic might be part of ad hoc military practise exercises in connection to the continuing situation with Syria.

One question some might raise: why a Medium range Ballistic Missile launch? Why can't this not be an unacknowledged launch into Earth orbit? First: it would not be possible to keep such a launch from a US landbased site a secret. It would be seen over a wide area (like the New Mexico test) and necessitate temporary closure of parts of airspace. Moreover, altitudes and directions really point to a launch in the Mid-Atlantic. The only way to launch into Earth Orbit over the Mid Atlantic would be by an airborne launch using a Pegasus rocket.

All in all, and given the context of the situation in Syria and the September 2 test in the Mediterranean as well, it is much more likely that this is an unacknowledged SLBM test, launched from a US, British or French submarine in the Mid-Atlantic.

UPDATE 24 Sep 2013 18:00:

It has now been confirmed that this was a US Trident SLBM test launched from an Ohio-class submerged submarine! So I was right! 

Update 25 Sep 2013: New post with new info here, including re-assessment of the launch trajectory 

(note: I thank Jan Hattenbach for making available his original imagery and for his permission to use it on this blog. And I thank Cees Bassa, Jonathan McDowell, Rainer Kresken and Daniel Fischer for discussions. Conclusions and any errors are solely mine).

APPENDIX  - added 24 Sept 2013, 19:50

Below are the astrometric data I used in my analysis. I did not measure every image, but enough to describe the track of the object. Measurements were done with AstroRecord astrometric software. Only the start of each trail segment was measured, except for IMG_1848 where the point where it brightens (3rd stage ignition) was measured as well. The observing site is at 28.7564 N, 17.8889 W and 2300 meter altitude. Times are accurate to ~1 second.

IMG       UT        RA        DEC 

1835      21:17:08  205.061  -3.950 

1838      21:17:29  206.335  -4.418 

1840      21:17:43  207.272  -4.737 

1843      21:18:04  208.731  -5.228 

1846      21:18:25  210.137  -5.743 

1848      21:18:39  211.071  -6.089 

1848_ign? 21:18:43  211.366  -6.153 

1850      21:18:53  212.081  -6.416 

1852      21:19:07  213.008  -6.790 

1853      21:19:14  213.489  -6.977 

1855      21:19:28  214.450  -7.388 

1856      21:19:35  214.907  -7.585  

1857      21:19:42  215.493  -7.786

Quelle: SATTRACKCAM LEIDEN

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2. UPDATE 24.9.:

Wie allgemein vermutet, handelte es sich bei meinem UFO um einen Raketentest, und zwar einer ballistischen Rakete des Typs Trident II D5, die von einem US-amerikanischen UBoot abgefeuert wurde. Hier die Bestätigung. Allerbesten Dank noch mals an Marco Langbroek und Cees Bassa für die Hilfe bei der Aufklärung dieses Rätsels!  

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A Trident II launch from a submerged submarine.

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Lockheed Martin-Built Trident II D5 Missile Achieves A Total Of 148 Successful Test Flights Since 1989

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Navy has conducted four successful test flights of the Trident II D5 Fleet Ballistic Missiles built by Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT]. The U.S. Navy launched the unarmed missiles Sept. 10 and 12 in the Atlantic Ocean from a submerged Ohio-class submarine home-ported at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Georgia.

This event marked the 145th, 146th, 147th and 148th successful test flights of the D5 missile since design completion in 1989 – a reliability record unmatched by any other large ballistic missile.

"This ultra-capable system serves a critical role in deterring aggression," said Doug White, vice president of Fleet Ballistic Missile programs, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, the Navy's Trident missile prime contractor. "We are dedicated to supporting Navy Strategic Systems Programs in assuring the system's continued readiness, reliability, performance and affordability."

The Navy launched the missiles as part of Follow-on Commander's Evaluation Tests. The missiles had been converted into test configurations using kits produced by Lockheed Martin that contain range safety devices and flight telemetry instrumentation. As required by the Department of Defense's National Command Authority, the U.S. Navy conducts a continuing series of operational system evaluation tests of the Trident Strategic Weapon System under the testing guidelines of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

First deployed in 1990, the D5 missile is currently aboard U.S. Navy Ohio-class and U.K. Royal Navy Vanguard-class submarines. The three-stage, solid-propellant, inertial-guided ballistic missile can travel a nominal range of 4,000 nautical miles and carries multiple independently targeted reentry bodies. The Fleet Ballistic Missile team has produced six generations, each more capable than its predecessor: the Polaris A1, Polaris A2, Polaris A3, Poseidon C3, Trident I C4 and Trident II D5 missiles.

Lockheed Martin has been the Navy's strategic missile prime contractor since the program's inception in 1955. The United States and the United Kingdom signed the Polaris Sales Agreement in 1963, which was modified in 1982 to provide for the Trident II D5 missile system. Since 1968, Lockheed Martin has provided program management and engineering services to the Royal Navy under the terms of the agreement.

Lockheed Martin employees, principally in California, Georgia, Florida, Washington, Utah, Virginia, Scotland and England, support the design, development, production, test, operation and sustainment of the Trident Strategic Weapon System.

Lockheed Martin leads the industry in performance and domain expertise in strategic missile and missile defense systems, designing and producing ballistic missiles, interceptors, target missiles and reentry systems with unmatched reliability and a focus on affordable high-quality systems and services.

Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 116,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products, and services. The corporation's net sales for 2012 were $47.2 billion.  

Quelle: prnewswire