What is that thing in the sky? (It's not a bird, a plane, or Superman.)

TheDustyZebra

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We had this in our high southwest-ish sky yesterday evening and into the night, and I can't figure out what it was. It was a weirdly shaped bright reflection as the sun was getting low, and as the sun went down it looked like this tiny double-moon thing - even to the naked eye, so not just a camera illusion - and after dark it looked more like the stars as far as shine goes. It didn't move much, if at all, over five or six hours. I didn't get any pictures of the early reflection stage.

I have two apps -- Skye and Stellarium -- that show the names of stuff in the sky as you pan them around, but they didn't tell me anything I could identify as useful. And there's an asteroid that's supposed to hit orbit today and become a second moon for 56 days, but it's not supposed to be visible to the eye or even telescopes (amateur, presumably), so it isn't that.

It really looked, through binoculars, like an 8-shaped moon, but at the bottom there was a dark "slot" at the edge. It looked like the moon looks in the daytime sky, and then, I suppose, like it looks at night when it's bright. I didn't look with the binoculars after dark, though. My neighbor is a pro photographer, and if they're home tonight and it's there again, I'm going to see if he can get some better pics. I do have a small telescope, but it's always been so difficult to set up and get seeing anything properly that we haven't got much use out of it.

Anyway, if anybody has any ideas, I'd really like to know what the heck this is!

From phone camera through binoculars:
1727633366795.png


From phone camera alone, no zoom.
1727633482204.png
 
Have you checked local news reports, chat groups and so on? Others will have seen it too, and some may have a better view or some knowledge about it.
Plus obviously there will be a few “entertaining” weirdo opinions
 
Jupiter, Mars, or Venus?
A decent set of binoculars or a telescope will show the moons around the former.
 
It could also be a Melkotian warning buoy that strayed off course. :unsure:
 
From phone camera through binoculars:
View attachment 124549

From phone camera alone, no zoom.
View attachment 124550
For the close shot, pardon me if it's a bit cheeky to ask, but: Are you sure of the focus of he binoculars, when paired with the iphone camera? The colour and rounded shape make me think of something like a Chinese flying lantern with an slightly unusual shape. But it was in the air for far too long. It could be some design or other LED night kite, which can give you all sorts of weird and wonderful glowing shapes in the sky:
1727864753909.png
1727864790002.png

You can get them on e-bay, or make your own: New Night Light Kite LED Lights UFO Evening Star Kite Outdoor fun Sports Toys | eBay
 
Oddly enough that fits the description of '2024 ON' The near earth orbit stadium size asteroid that was supposed to be 'visible' to telescopes on the 17th of this month.

This article says Aug 18th-- however I think it was supposed to momentarily be captured and than released from an orbit at some point.
Ah, that one is 2024 JV33

This is the one:

no wait here: is the one that loops


This one might not have the right shape.
 
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Stadium, eh?

What’s that in giraffes?
 
A weather balloon of some sort?

My neighbor, the aforementioned photographer, suggested this as well, and I think we have a winner.

I can see this being it, if seen at the right angle to make the circles look about the same size:
1728716046702.png


And this could definitely match the dark "notch" that I could see at the bottom of the lower circle, again at the right angle:
1728716182378.png


So yeah, cliché though it is, it seems likely. Assuming these things can refract light in all kinds of crazy directions as the sun is going down.
 

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